Linguistic Difficulties

The news story below represents the logical culmination of the Multicultural welfare state: a young Turkish woman in Austria speaks no German, and is thus virtually unemployable, so the state must pay for the care of her children.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Many thanks to JLH for translating this article from the June 13 edition of Die Presse:

Turkish Woman Speaks No German, So She Does Not Have to Work

by Phillip Aichinger

Because of her lack of knowledge of German, a Turkish woman has little chance in the job market, so she does not have to earn a living for her children, decided the court in Favoriten district.

Vienna: District Favoriten made a remarkable legal decision. Because of her poor German skills, the court decided, a Turkish woman does not have to work to support her children.

The father filed the application in the name of his children. A suit for divorce and custody is proceeding simultaneously, the father’s attorney, Thomas J. Ruža, said. The wife testified that she could speak hardly any German. Her husband had not wanted her to learn to speak German. She had not sought work, because the children needed special care. It had not been possible for her to get a job on the job market.

Not true, responded the father. His wife could work in the area of something like housecleaning and earn around €1,000 a month. Furthermore, he had encouraged his wife several times to learn German, but she had refused. And the attorney pointed out, that the children were presently living with their father.

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The wife is now attending a German course, for which she receives €397 a month from the employment service. Too little for child support. However, what counts in the child support law is the “effort” principle: the person who is entitled to receive child support must make a maximum effort, that is, earn as much as he or she is capable of. The test for that is determined by the individual case. The district court analyzed the situation in this particular instance. The woman does not speak German, so it will be difficult for her to find employment without German, since the application interview could turn out to be difficult. “We can conclude from this that, with a comparatively large number of applications, a more qualified person will be chosen.” That the woman could earn around €1,000 Euros per month was “pure fiction,” said the court (026 PU 103/09 s-12). Therefore, the wife is not liable for child support.

Too Focused on Language

The father’s attorney wants to challenge the decision. The decision of the Favoriten district court was given by a (female) law enforcement officer. Next to preside will be judges. “The decision’s result may be tenable. Nonetheless, with good argumentation, I believe it is vulnerable,” says attorney Brigitte Birnbaum (who took no part in the trial), family law expert and vice-president of the Vienna bar. In her opinion, while it must be considered that a person of limited linguistic skills is more difficult to place, in this case, however, the court “focused too much on the language problem.” It should have been made clear what steps the mother had taken to find a job. At any rate, Birnbaum emphasizes, the decision is not permission for a non-German speaker not to work.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.