No Deal - Germany’s planned tax agreement with Switzerland collapses | Don't Assimilate - Turkey hampers integration | Hopelessly Overcrowded - German universities | Asylum in Germany - Is it getting easier?
Many Germans have large amounts of money invested in Switzerland - in some cases to avoid taxes. An agreement with Switzerland that German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble negotiated was aimed at stopping tax evasion. But opposition parties say the agreement is too lax. Norbert Walter-Borjans, North-Rhine Westphalia's state finance minister, is an especially vehement opponent.
Most Germans think the authorities’ purchase of CDs containing data on German clients of Swiss banks should continue. About 62 percent of participants in a recent survey said they favored the procedure.
The Overseas Citizens' Advisory Board in Turkey also has a powerful associate group in Germany. It advises Turkish citizens not to integrate too completely and to preserve the Turkish language. For politicians in Turkey, the issue is also about courting potential voters with Turkish passports living in Germany.
The discontinuation of military conscription and changes in the length of secondary school education, with two age groups graduating from high schools in the same year, have resulted in German universities being flooded with students - a record 2.5 million new enrollments.
Lecture rooms are full to bursting, professors and students swamped, and affordable student housing has become a scarce commodity.
A group of asylum seekers have marched across Germany to protest against the way the country treats those seeking to stay here. As far as the demonstrators are concerned, their protest has been a success. They're still camped out in Berlin, and have in the process got the nation once again talking about the right to asylum.
