Hitler town landlord demands visitors speak German

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General News

A bar owner in the town where Hitler was born has banned guests from speaking anything other than German. According to Austrian media a Croatian speaking lady was told by a waitress at the Bar-Silica in Hitler’s home town of Braunau am Inn in Upper Austria that she had to speak German in the bar […]

One in four Austrian weddings involve foreigners

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General News

Almost a quarter of all the weddings in Austria are binational according to the latest statistics from Statistik Austria. It said that 23.5 percent of marriages fall into this category were either one partner is an Austrian and the other a foreign national – or both are foreign nationals. In 2010 that represented 8,823 binational […]

Integration secretary plans home visit initiative

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General News

Social workers will visit badly integrated foreigners at home to help them learning German, People’s Party (ÖVP) Integration Secretary Sebastian Kurz announced yesterday (Tues). Kurz said his office planned to expand a successful Viennese pilot project concept based on programmes in Switzerland and Australia to several other Austrian towns and cities in the coming months. […]

Davutoglu praises integration

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Politics

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has visited a school in Vienna. Davutoglu and Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger spoke with pupils and teachers of a secondary modern school in Vienna-Favoriten yesterday (Thurs). The families of around 25 per cent of the school’s students come from Turkey. The political scientist – who became […]

Racist youth check causes controversy

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General News

A sociologist has questioned the results of a disputed study on Austrian teens’ attitudes. Newspaper commentators, integration experts and radio talk show hosts engaged in a heated debate about the outcome of the latest examination by the Austrian Institute for Youth Culture Research. The organisation found that 43.6 per cent of Vienna-based teens agreed with […]

Turkish debate set to intensify over new immigration figures

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Politics

More than one out of five residents of Vienna are foreigners, statistics have shown.Federal agency Statistik Austria said today (Fri) the capital’s percentage of foreigners was 21.5 per cent while only 11 per cent of Austria’s populace have other nationalities than Austrian. The authority also explained that, with more than 368,000, around 40 per cent […]

Jewellery robbery suspect nabbed on football pitch

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General News

A man accused of being behind a robbery in Austria has been arrested on a soccer ground in Romania.Marius Crasmaru was detained as he played football with friends in Botosani, northern Romania.The 22-year-old Romanian is suspected of stealing a unique bracelet made of 74 diamonds and other trinkets worth more than 23,000 Euros altogether from […]

Right-wing outcry over foreign ski instructors

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General News

A right-wing newspaper has expressed concerns over safety on the slopes and wage dumping as more and more ski instructors on pistes in the Austrian Alps are foreigners.The market-leading Kronen Zeitung, which sells almost three million copies a day, cites an unnamed critic, who claims that foreign ski instructors can be found “standing around on […]

Ambassador an ‘arrogant Turkish nationalist’

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Politics

The Turkish ambassador in Vienna has been branded an “arrogant nationalist” for claiming Austrians were only interested in other cultures when on holiday.Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache said today (Thurs) Kadri Ecvet Tezcan should be dismissed from his post after he gave interview to Viennese newspaper Die Presse which made headlines across Europe.Strache, whose […]

Conservatives ignored immigration issues, says Thierse

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Politics

Wolfgang Thierse has claimed Germany’s conservative parties are in trouble after ignoring integration problems for too long.The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) official told Austrian newspaper Die Presse today (Mon): “The SPD doesn’t have a particular problem regarding immigration topics – in contrast to the conservative parties since they closed their eyes for too […]