The new Bundestag mirrors society: People of color, LGBTQ+ activists, people with different professional backgrounds. That more parliamentarians have their roots in migrant communities represents a huge opportunity.
In 2015, now-outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than one million migrants and refugees, many of them from Syria, into Germany. In the years that followed, many were granted refugee or special protection status. Some have taken up German citizenship, in time to vote in the upcoming German election on September 26, and help choose Merkel's successor.
After 50 worshippers were murdered in Christchurch and last year saw more than 800 attacks on Muslims in Germany, calls for an Islamophobia commissioner are growing. An anti-Semitism commissioner took office in 2018.
The mayors of some Italian and Spanish cities are challenging the politics of national sovereignty and blocked ports, by signing an alliance in support of NGOs working in migrant rescue in the Mediterranean. Just three months ahead of European elections, the signatories said the pact aims to "save Europe from itself.”