21% of Primary Students in Vienna Don't Speak German--A Call for Immediate Action

The numbers in kindergarten are even worse: about 60%, and there's almost no time left to address these challenges, that is, if 'we' want to do so

Following up on yesterday’s piece entitled ‘The Great Sorting is Here’, one of the aspects to understand about the present moment is that there are historical antecedents that offer insights into plausible, if not likely, Western futures.

One of the key insights is offered by the tragic history of Lebanon after the end of French colonial oversight: a majoritarian Christian country with a quite successfully integrated multi-ethnic (and poly-confessional) society, Beirut decided, in 1948, to do unto others as they did to themselves and welcomed the Arab refugees from neighbouring Palestine.

While it was arguably never intended to integrate these immigrants, and given extraneous conditions over which Lebanon held little, if any, sway, it inaugurated a gradual change of the composition of the resident population.

Add to that the miseries of successive conflicts in/over Israel (1967, 1973) the long Civil War (1975-90), and two bouts of foreign occupation (Syria, 1976-2000, Israel, 1985-2000), as well as the UN-mandated ‘peacekeepers’, which have been in the area since 1978 and the intermittent Israeli-Hezbullah fighting.

All of this is indicative of little, if anything, that the central gov’t located in Beirut can do. The best-case scenario is the maintenance of a semblance of order in parts of the country, with varying degrees of ‘normalcy’ apparent here and there—think the enclaves of Western lifestyle around the American University of Beirut, if you like.

Now, I’m not claiming this to be the exact blueprint for what will transpire in the West, but even the briefest consideration of demographic differentials between Westerners and (vs.) immigrant-invaders points to very strong headwinds, and for the consequences thereof, Lebanon offers, in my opinion, a telling, if not very propitious, (historical) analogy.

To underscore this trend, let’s once more consider what happens at the ‘bottom’ of state-run education system in urban areas as a harbinger of things to come. Here follows an example from Austria that I saw yesterday evening.

Translation, emphases, [and snark] mine.

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Already in Primary School: 21% of Students Cannot Speak German

Via Heute.at, 23 Nov. 2024 [source]

The number of so-called ‘extraordinary pupils’ [orig. außerordentliche Schüler] in Viennese primary schools is rising. There have been over 15,613 since October. German language support programmes cannot keep up [I hear from informed people within the Austrian federal gov’t that ‘75-80% of all migrants are illiterate’].

The number of so-called ‘extraordinary pupils’ at Viennese primary schools—these children have such poor German skills that they are unable to follow regular lessons—remains at a high level in the latest report for the 2023/24 school year. According to Deputy Mayor and City Councillor for Education Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS), as of 1 Oct. 2024, a total of 73,280 pupils are enrolled at Viennese public primary schools—15,613 of whom have so-called extraordinary status, which accounts for around 21% of the total number.

This represents an increase of 1,281 pupils compared to the same period last year. In October 2023, the proportion was still 20.5%, which corresponded to 14,332 pupils with ‘extraordinary’ status. This means that more and more children are listed as ‘extraordinary’ in the Viennese school system due to refugee movements and other circumstances [whatever, I guess] and do not have sufficient language skills, explains Wiederkehr [it is him, by the way, who is currently considered a ‘good choice’ for federal minister of education].

Hardly German-Speaking: More than half were born in Austria

Of the pupils concerned, just under 52% (8,184) stated Austria as their country of birth, while around 20% (3,133) have Austrian citizenship. These figures reflect the international crises of recent years, in particular the wars in Syria and Ukraine, which have triggered a wave of refugees and led to an increase in the number of pupils in Vienna's primary schools. [this is, of course, gaslighting galore, as the gov’t is loath to share the ‘true’ numbers, hence the obfuscatory notion of ‘born here’: Austria took in 3.34m immigrants since 2000, hence a good deal of those ‘born here’ will have to be of immigrant stock; which says nothing about the cultural and/or ethnic background; see here for an example from Norway how the gov’t is massaging the numbers]

The challenge for the Viennese education system is enormous: since 2022, the number of female pupils has grown by around 4,000 every year—an increase that is far higher than the growth figures of previous years. However, despite the increase in pupils, there is a lack of sufficient resources, particularly in the area of German language support, criticises City Councillor Wiederkehr [see how ‘politics™’ work: if you’re in charge of, say, education policy in any given jurisdiction (e.g., Vienna), if something doesn’t work or there is a problem, you ‘criticise’ stuff, perhaps esp. if it’s your bloody job to begin with; note that doing so is actually what ‘qualifies’ you for ‘higher office].

The number of spots provided by the federal government for German language support would not be sufficient to cover the increased demand [speaks to the abilities of the federal gov’t and its permanent bureaucracy to plan ahead, doesn’t it? Let’s not have these people try their hand at, say, the economy…]. In recent years, additional spots have therefore had to be taken from the general pot for German language support in order to meet demand, criticises the Vienna City Councillor for Education [and he does so to avoid taking responsibility for the gov’t agency he runs, it bears repeating].

‘The current numbers of extraordinary students in Vienna's primary schools show once again how important it is to learn German. Learning German is not optional, it’s compulsory!’, emphasised Wiederkehr. ‘Successful integration through language acquisition requires appropriate programmes on the one hand, but also the clear cooperation of parents on the other’, he clarified. It is also particularly problematic that around 60% of Viennese kindergarten children speak a first language other than German. [three brief comments here: first, after WW2, Austria administratively bypassed any lingering doubts about its people’s identity—are we ‘German-German’ or ‘Austro-Germans’ or ‘Austrians’ (whatever that means)—by decreeing that Austria doesn’t have an ‘official language’ (Amtssprache), which could be demanded; instead, in schools, the wording is ‘language of instruction’ (Unterrichtssprache), which cannot be mandated without changing the law and/or, more likely, the constitution; second, how would the ostensibly libertarian-esque politico™ ensure ‘cooperation of parents’, i.e., mandate foreigners to speak German at home? Third, the share of non-German-speakers in elementary schools is slightly less than 50% vs. ‘around 60% in kindergarten’: how much time do ‘we’ have left?]

Too Few German Support Programmes

In response to this growing challenge, the City of Vienna has been focussing on the ‘Vienna Summer Learning’ project for two years [morons]. As part of this project, around 4,000 pupils receive free German courses during the summer holidays [first of all, great: who signs up for that? secondly, that’s a proverbial drop in the bucket as at least 4X that amount would be needed, and it would have to be mandatory for both kids and parents—but then again, why do I mandate kids to attend school in the first place (and ask taxpayers to fund this?) It’s an admission of failure, if there ever was one]. Nevertheless, it is necessary to further expand the summer programme and use all available resources more efficiently, according to Wiederkehr [if stuff doesn’t work, call for more of the same to appear ‘doing something™’].

ÖVP Calls for Compulsory Kindergarten Attendance

For the [conservative-in-name-only, allegedly Christian] ÖVP, the recently published figures are a reason to criticise the Vienna City Councillor for Education [because they can’t criticise the federal gov’t in which said ÖVP has held the Interior Ministry for the past decades, with the exception of the two years when the allegedly ‘far-right™’ FPÖ ran it from 2017-19]:

If children are born here, grow up here, attend kindergarten for at least two years and then still don't speak enough German, this has nothing to do with refugee movements or the number of places in Vienna’s schools, but quite simply with the failure of this city government in the elementary education sector.

Thus Harald Zierfuß, education spokesperson for the Vienna People’s Party (ÖVP). [needless to say, mandating children to go to state-run kindergartens is the ‘family values’ platform of the conservative-in-name-only, allegedly Christian, ÖVP: you cannot make this up]

Zierfuß continued that the blame cannot be shifted to the federal government [of course not]:

The fact is that the measures taken by the city government are not effective or not effective enough and the problems cannot be solved with a few dozen more language support staff in Vienna’s kindergartens. [hear, hear, would that mean we’re closing the borders and deport those who should not be here in the first place?]

Among other things, the People’s Party is calling for compulsory kindergarten attendance for all 3-year-old children, including intensive German support, following a compulsory language assessment [that demand, by the way, was what the far-left Red-Green city gov’t in Zurich, Switzerland, pushed through a decade ago: it also mandated this ‘only’ to those households in which not one parent spoke German, hence: good luck with that in the courts—it’s a good idea, technically, speaking, if one wishes to expand the reach of the state, but it’s 112% unrealistic as courts will find this ‘discriminatory’]. In addition, all teachers should have language support training and all assistants should have a language level of C1 [oh look, more state-emmployed teachers will ‘fix™’ this issue].

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Bottom Lines

The writing is on the walls, and it has been there for decades, if only we would have wished to see.

The problem isn’t, of course, the immigration of vast masses of foreigners per se, but their willingness to integrate, assimilate, and be accepted as ‘real’, or ‘true’, new fellow-countrymen.

If you’re in doubt, I highly recommend E.A. Ross, The Old World in the New (1914), who details a clear rank-ordering of desired and less-desire-able immigrants. Moreover, in 1924, the US declared that ‘the boat was full’ and introduced a quota system for immigration.

Unlike the US a century ago, none of this is even discussed.

Instead, the ‘conservatives-in-name-only’ call for much more, and drastically so, state involvement in child-rearing, including very intrusive obligations about what language is supposedly spoken in the ‘privacy’ (sic) of one’s home.

This is, of course, both insane as well as utterly destined (designed) to fail.

Post-Script: What, then, Could be Done?

First of all, the hour is very late and there’s not much, if any, time left.

I suppose a last-ditch effort would have to proceed from this notion:

Vienna has Fallen

The federal gov’t should declare an ‘existential emergency’ or the like and, to convey the seriousness of the situation, relocate to a (temporary) different place, e.g., Salzburg or Innsbruck. And then send police and the army to comb through the capital to find, process, and deport all illegals, ideally after a 2-3 week ‘grace’ period for those who come forward on their own.

This move would shake up the population that still cares about the country and the future of their children and grand-children, hence it’s more a symbolic, but highly relevant move.

At the same time, the law must be enforced: no ‘right-to asylum’ means deportation; drastic curtailing of entitlement payments and strict enforcement of access to federally-paid services.

This will result in a far-left (media) shit storm, hence to convey the message of this being an ‘existential emergency’, a sudden reduction of gov’t subsidies for legacy media (which in Austria is most notably done via state agencies and parties advertising in media outlets) would likely render much of ‘private’ media companies insolvent—that is, unless they reported on stuff the public would like to read. A clearing of this bloated public-private partnership is long overdue.

And then we’d need to end federal handouts for party politicians (which in Austria is done to ‘prevent corruption’, but it’s really more of a life-long support line for those who fail at anything else) and reduce salaries, withhold parts of them—perhaps tied to doing the electorate’s wishes and/or making payment contingent on keeping election promises—for MPs and politicians.

It’s not yet a plan in the full sense of the term, but I think it provides an outline for what, I think, would have to be done.

The time for less stringent methods has long passed.