Letter: Kindness of Germans

Sir: John Parry (Letters, 5 June), Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen and others are wrong to suggest that the German ban on dual citizenship is inimical to racial harmony. Firstly, my appearance and ignorance of German mark me out as an auslander. Yet, on every visit to Germany I have been consistently treated with at least as much courtesy and kindness by total strangers as I am in my own country (the UK), France, Belgium or Switzerland. My experiences of passport controls at English airports and of Swiss land borders respectively have been somewhat unpleasant at times.

In Germany they were always pleasant. Secondly, people who went to Germany as 'guest workers' did so with their eyes open. They were not indentured labourers, nor were they slaves. They have no right to demand changes in the citizenship laws to suit themselves. They have every right to be treated fairly - in accordance with German law and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Dr Panikos Panayi (Letters, 3 June) says that the refugees in Germany are 'second-class citizens'. He forgets that they are not citizens at all. Dual citizenship, permitted by countries such as our own, is a ridiculous concept. It is impossible to give your loyalty to two sovereign nations simultaneously.

Yours truly,

JOGINDER ANAND

Peterborough,

Cambridgeshire

6 June