Promotion of integration has always ranked high on the university agenda and has been well received by the academic community. But recent developments have been less acceptable and have roused my personal concern.
I refer in particular to a number of reports recently published in Observant with considerable adverse comment on the high percentage of German students enrolling at the School of Business and Economics as well as other faculties. Then we have the newly-introduced series of interviews conducted by Riki Janssen. And finally, the communication from the Dean of UCM, prof. Harm Hospers, addressed to the student representatives of FHS (of which I am one) requesting ideas for dealing with an urgent concern that was brought to his attention: walking through UCM's common room, one could hear German and Dutch students speaking quite openly in their native languages, something deemed “impossible” for a faculty which is UM’s role model for successful integration.
All these attempts to rouse increased awareness of the importance of integration seem to me to be heading in the wrong direction. They are all too simplistic and could even be counterproductive. They all somehow suggest or at least imply that in our thinking we are facing a situation little different from the problematic era after World War II: the “German Question”.
This is not even one side of the coin. For one thing, the discussion takes no account of students from other nationalities enrolled at UM. Are Germans so different? Secondly, the debate has taken a rather one-sided, unhelpful turn. There is a note of compulsion and accusation behind the various demands for integration. We have Riki Janssen asking over and over again whether Germans are learning Dutch or live in Maastricht. Back comes the answer: No, I live in Aachen and have not learnt Dutch. The conclusion follows: Bad example of integration – another clash of Dutch and German culture.
Attempts to integrate must encompass everyone and a new approach must be taken to shift responsibility more equally.
Incidentally, although my surname might suggest otherwise, I am not German.