That grammar evolves naturally, like species do, so any rules we find for the categorization of either should reflect reality, not try to dictate it.
For example, I just started that bit with a clause, which means it’s a fragment, not a sentence. I still put a period at the end of it and started it without any lead in, which is “wrong,” but it’s more that the rule is wrong, because what I wrote plays the role of a sentence in this case.
That’s terrifying as an immigrant though, that 77% of the citizens around me wish I weren’t here. I don’t see how it would take too much in that case for the laws to change surrounding immigration to change drastically.
I’m not trying to sound ungrateful, but I also don’t see my presence as a burden. I don’t know why the majority of Germans disagree.
Thanks. You’re good! I actually realized during this exchange that the disconnect is probably because you grew up in a functional country that didn’t tell you you had rights, while showing you that you didn’t.
I’m currently entitled to residency, but the AfD got more votes than the left did where I live. Even SPD is getting shitty about immigrants. I’m not certain that it will actually go through before the government changes and I have to jump through different hoops to get it.
I’d love to have your trust, but I’ve been an immigrant for years and married for months, so I dealt with the ausländeramt alone for much of that time and I’ve seen how much they fuck up (again, they’re overworked, it’s the city’s fault). If in five years I’m still in Germany with no significant issues (and my students’ stories get a lot more hopeful), I’ll start to believe that permanent means permanent.
I’m not sure how you intended your first line, but it bristles a bit. Especially given that my comment started off explaining that Germans tend to dismiss the difficulties of immigration.
Things are very different city to city (as your wife is probably aware if she has any immigrants as friends), and the differences aren’t what you’d think. I have a couple of Arab friends in Halle, who get two year visas in the middle of their studies that basically get rubber stamp approved. Köln, on the other hand can be awful in terms of bureaucracy. I’m in a big college town, so a lot of international students live here and the office is totally overloaded (the university is not new, they should have hired more people in the fifties and kept up with immigration), but unlike Berlin, they are less likely to grant you residence because of that.
I’m still waiting on permanent residence, ideally it will be easier after that. I have to visit or call the Ausländeramt multiple times to make sure that they actually process my renewals (which they do for only a semester at a time because of Uni), including reassembling documents (bank statements, insurance, school status) for them every six months. They can’t give me permanent residence yet, because they fucked up the paperwork on our marriage license, listing me incorrectly, so they have to reprocess things. I assume they’ll forget until I remind them again at least twice, and then there will be at least one more fuckup before things get pushed through.
I suspect it’s more that the requirements are lower and the buildings are on average older than in Yakutsk, which contribute to less effective insulation.
I love being an immigrant in Germany. I’m white and not Ukrainian though, so my experience is mostly Germans telling me that this would never apply to me, then spending on average two hours a month to stay legal here, even though I’m fluent in German, pursuing a master’s degree in German language education, and married to a German. It’s honestly not a lot of time, but it’s constant. Then, if I ever fuck up, I get deported.
It really is. I’ve asked all of the immigrants I know if there’s a word for “end of shift” and an accompanying common greeting in their language, but so far, nobody except Germans does it.
In Germany, people wish you a happy close as a business, or a happy end of shift. Every time I work nights, I wish customers a happy close of business 🤦
I don’t think that’s effective, but thank you for the heartfelt advice.