Migrants 'make Germany dumb' says central banker in astonishing outburst

By Allan Hall In Berlin

Controversial: Thilo Sarrazin warned 'less educated' immigrants are making Germany 'dumber'


Immigrants are making Germany 'dumber', according to a board member of the country's central bank.

Thilo Sarrazin claimed the 'limited education' of immigrants - coupled with their high birth rate - meant Germans 'are becoming dumber in a simple way'.

He said: 'There's a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.'

It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.

In October he described Muslim children as 'underclass' citizens.

'I don't have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn't properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,' Mr Sarrazin said.

'That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.' He added that they were not fit for much other than 'fruit and vegetable selling'.

In his latest speech this week he said there were 'ample statistics' proving he was correct about German intelligence.

He went on to say that in particular immigrants from 'Turkey, the Middle East and Africa' were less educated.

Because immigrants tend to have more children than Germans - who have the lowest birth rate in Europe - this caused 'a different propagation of population groups with different intelligence because parents pass their intelligence on to their children'.

Mr Sarrazin, who was previously Germany's finance minister, has not yet apologised. It is thought his position at the Bundesbank may now be untenable.

A spokesman for a Muslim group in Berlin said: 'He is a tired old white Christian male full of prejudice and few ideas.'

But among conservatives in Germany his comments have struck a chord.

They have voiced concern that the country's three million Turks tend to live in their own communities, socialise among each other and have little in common with their German neighbours.