ALTENA, Germany – A decade ago, as Germany was grappling with an influx of more than a million migrants, the small town of Altena saw an opportunity to reverse years of population and economic decline.

The industrial town in Western Germany made national headlines in 2015 when it volunteered to take in 100 more migrants than required, becoming a model of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pledge: “Wir schaffen das” – “We can do this.”

But while there have been benefits for both sides, three current and former town officials told Reuters migration wasn’t a panacea.

With the help of residents who mobilized to support the newcomers, many found homes and started contributing to the local economy, they told Reuters. But some moved on to bigger cities, which offer more work and education opportunities.

Others struggled to overcome language and cultural barriers, adding to rising welfare costs in a town with an aging population, officials said.

Now some local residents complain that the number of refugees and asylum seekers is getting too high. Recent election results show growing support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, fuelled by frustration over rising living costs, strained public finances and crumbling infrastructure.

“The glass is half full and half empty,” said Thomas Liebig, a migration researcher who contributed to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report in 2018 on Altena’s efforts to integrate refugees. “Many refugees found jobs, but social cohesion still lags behind.”

WARM WELCOME
Nestled amid scenic wooded hills, Altena has been an industrial hub since the middle ages.

The riverside town describes itself as the birthplace of wire production. But local ironworks struggled to stay competitive in recent decades, wiping out a third of its jobs, the former mayor, Andreas Hollstein, told Reuters. Only the heavily automated steel wire sector survived.

By 2015, Altena was one of the fastest dwindling towns in western Germany with a population of around 17,000, just over half what it was in the 1970s, according to the World Bank.

The reduced tax base hurt the town’s finances, making it difficult to keep basic amenities open, officials said. Schools closed because there weren’t enough students to fill the classrooms.

When Hollstein suggested taking in more refugees and asylum seekers than the town’s allotment of 270 in 2015, there was broad support from local council members.

“Taking in families meant we could fill empty housing, reopen classrooms and bring new life to the town,” said Anette Wesemann, Altena’s integration commissioner. “It was a win-win.”

The town had already absorbed waves of migrant workers, including Italians and Turks recruited in the 1960s to staff its factories. So locals were accustomed to living alongside neighbours with different cultures and languages, Hollstein said.

Each refugee family or individual was paired with a local “kuemmerer”, or caregiver, to show them the ropes. Many residents volunteered to help, raising donations for care packages, furnishing homes for the new arrivals, accompanying them to medical appointments and helping with paperwork.

Leveraging the high vacancy rate, the town placed newcomers in apartments rather than a shelter. This helped integrate them into neighbourhoods, the OECD report said.

“For the children, we put dolls there,” recalled Dorothee Isenbeck, 81, one of the original volunteers. “There was a group of elderly men who decorated the apartments so beautifully, so they felt they were welcome.”

Data on the program is sketchy. Officials said they did not track how many migrants have come since 2015 or how they faired.

But by 2024, roughly half of the 100 additional arrivals that year were still living in Altena, Wesemann said. Most of the rest had moved to bigger cities, while a few Iraqis decided to return home, she said.

Among those who stayed is Humam al-Gburi, a 34-year-old Iraqi refugee who arrived by bus in October 2015. He said he had no idea what to expect, but the warm welcome eased his fears.

Lasting bonds were forged through the town’s integration program. A translator introduced him to Ursula Panke, an 85-year-old retired nurse he refers to as his “omi”, or grandmother.

Their friendship began when Gburi helped her set up an art exhibition. “He hung everything so precisely, so carefully,” she recalled, smiling.

She became a mentor, encouraging him to try different vocational courses until he found his calling. He now works as a nurse himself at a nearby orthopaedics and trauma clinic.

“In a big city, you’re just a number. Here, people know me. Uschi is my family,” Gburi said, using Panke’s nickname. “Family doesn’t mean blood — it’s the people who listen, who help, who stand by you.”

AfD’s RISE
Not everyone was so welcoming. Shortly after the first arrivals in 2015, a local firefighter set a building housing refugees on fire. No one was hurt in the arson attack.

Two years later, mayor Hollstein survived a knife attack by a man who cited his refugee policy as the motive.

With more migrants arriving every year, the mood among some residents started to sour.

“Hardly any German is spoken anymore. It’s all foreigners here,” Hannelore Wendler said outside a grocery store. “I have nothing against foreigners; they’re all people. But it’s too much.”

Anger over Merkel’s open-door policy toward migrants, many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, helped propel the rise of the AfD, which is now the country’s main opposition party.

Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where Altena is located, is less conservative than eastern regions. But the AfD has been making inroads in the state’s small towns and rural areas, said Manfred Guellner, who heads the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, a leading German polling company.

Migration is not the main concern in NRW, he said, but rather rising inflation, job losses in the auto industry and a sense of economic decline.

“Only about half of AfD supporters even believe the party could govern better. People vote for it out of frustration with the others,” Guellner said.

The party won nearly 24% of the vote in Altena during February’s federal election, up from around 10% in 2017 and 2021.

“Altena is a prime example of failed integration and failed politics,” said Klaus Laatsch, the AfD parliamentary group leader in the Maerkischer Kreis district council, which includes Altena.

“All around us … it’s going downhill,” he said, citing rising energy costs, shuttered businesses, trash-strewn streets and inadequate transportation services. “Citizens experience these problems every day, and they see that past promises were never fulfilled.”

Still, the party has little visible presence in Altena. It has no office and is not fielding candidates in the town for the state’s municipal elections on Sept. 14.

Altena’s contributions toward the assimilation of refugees in Germany were recognised in 2017 with an award from the federal government.

But the population has continued to decline. By the end of 2024, there were just over 16,600 residents, 4% less than in 2015, according to figures from the state statistics office.

The town’s finances improved, though Hollstein said that had more to do with spending cuts, tax increases and a rebound in local steel processing than the relatively small number of migrants who chose to remain.

But even as some leave, others continue to arrive, officials said.

They are drawn by the town’s affordable housing and welcoming reputation, said a Syrian supermarket owner and two of her customers, who did not want their names published for fear of drawing unwanted attention.

After years of effort, some early volunteers are now stepping back, and finding replacements is becoming harder, Hollstein said.

But the town remains relatively unchanged, he said. “That’s positive. The newcomers live among us; their kids are in school; life goes on.”

Looking back, he remains convinced that Merkel was right.

“We can do this,” he said. “But critics are right too — Germany can’t absorb those numbers indefinitely.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is continuing its talks with trading partners despite a US appeals court ruling that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday.

“Our trading partners, they continue to work very closely with us on negotiations,” he said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program. “People are moving forward with their deals, regardless of what this court may say in the interim.”

Greer did not say which countries the United States was still in talks with, but said he had spoken with one trade minister on Saturday morning.

The ruling threatens what has become a pillar of Trump’s foreign policy since starting his second term in the White House in January. He has used the levies imposed on imported goods to exert political pressure and renegotiate trade deals even as the tariffs have increased volatility in financial markets.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington’s 7-4 decision on Friday said while Congress gave the president significant authority to act in response to a national emergency, lawmakers did not “explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax.”

The decision addressed the legality of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs set in April as well as tariffs imposed against China, Canada and Mexico in February, but does not impact those issued under other legal authority.

Trump on Friday blasted the decision and vowed to take the case to the US Supreme Court. The appeals court said his tariffs can remain in effect through October 14 to allow for appeals.

Trade experts said the Trump administration had been bracing for the ruling and preparing alternative plans to be able to proceed with its tariffs.

“If other countries are looking at this and thinking they’re going to get tariff relief, they’re in for a unpleasant surprise. There are backup options upon backup options, even if the Supreme Court ends up agreeing with the appeals court,” said Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council think tank.

He said one option would be to turn to Section 338 of a 1930 trade law that allows the president to impose duties of up to 50% against imports from countries that are found to discriminate against US commerce.

Trump weighed in again on Saturday in a social media post, saying “A big year ahead for the USA, maybe the BEST EVER, if the Tariffs are finally approved by the Courts!!!”

The president headed to his Virginia golf club on Sunday, ahead of Monday’s Labor Day holiday celebrating US workers.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” that the administration was optimistic the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court would back Trump’s tariffs.

Fellow Republican US Senator James Lankford said companies he has talked to want the issue settled.

“Every time there’s a new court hearing, every time there’s a new change, it’s destabilizing for every one of our businesses. So let’s get all these things resolved as quickly as we possibly can,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” — Reuters

SHANGHAIUS – China’s manufacturing activity shrank for a fifth straight month in August, an official survey showed on Sunday, suggesting producers are waiting for further clarity on a trade deal with the US while domestic demand remains sluggish.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 49.4 in August versus 49.3 in July, remaining below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and missing a median forecast of 49.5 in a Reuters poll.

China’s economy is confronting weakening exports due to US tariffs, a property sector downturn, rising job insecurity, heavily indebted local governments and extreme weather. These pressures threaten to derail Beijing’s ambitious 2025 growth target of “around 5%,” according to economists.

The non-manufacturing PMI index, which includes services and construction, expanded at a quicker pace, rising to 50.3 from 50.1 in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS composite PMI of manufacturing and non-manufacturing was 50.5 in August, compared with 50.2 in July.

China’s economic momentum has slowed in the third quarter due to persistently weak domestic demand and a cooling property market, said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“The macro outlook in the rest of the year largely depends on how long exports can stay strong and whether fiscal policy will become more supportive in Q4,” Zhang said.

While July exports beat forecasts, the gain was supported by a low base and driven by a surge in shipments to Southeast Asia, as Chinese exporters scramble to grow market share there amid fears of losing access to the US, the world’s top consumer market – a push some producers have called a “mad rat race.”

Earlier this month, the US and China extended their tariff truce for another 90 days, locking in place levies of 30% on Chinese imports and 10% Chinese duties on US goods, but the uncertainty is eroding confidence on both sides of the Pacific.

Profits at China’s industrial firms fell for a third straight month in July, official data showed on Wednesday, highlighting how businesses are also struggling with subdued demand and persistent factory-gate deflation at home, keeping the pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus.

Policymakers have ramped up consumer subsidies, but a prolonged property slump is still crimping spending, with real estate a key store of household wealth.

Households’ reluctance to take out mortgages was reflected in July bank lending data, which unexpectedly contracted for the first time in 20 years.

And consumer spending could take a further hit if a recent ruling by China’s top court banning firms and employees from skirting social insurance payments leads to job losses, with many companies and workers already struggling to make ends meet. Urban unemployment edged up to 5.2% in July from 5% in June.

The decision should support cash-strapped local authorities – deprived of land-sale revenue – in replenishing depleted pension coffers, as demands on public finances continue to grow. Extreme weather alone, for instance, has caused $2.2 billion of road damage since July 1. — Reuters

HANOI – As Vietnam celebrates the 80th anniversary of its declaration of independence from colonial rule this week, French cultural influence remains ubiquitous, but not many people in the Southeast Asian nation are aware of its prevalence.

A massive military parade will herald on Tuesday the independence proclaimed by revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Sept 2, 1945, which was meant to end nearly a century of French rule but instead started a decade-long war until the defeated French eventually left in 1954.

Ba Dinh Square in central Hanoi, where the legendary leader affectionately known in Vietnam as Uncle Ho, made his historical declaration, is flanked by two of the capital’s best preserved French colonial buildings – now home to the presidential palace and the foreign ministry.

But none of the six under-30 Hanoians interviewed by Reuters in front of the yellow-painted foreign ministry headquarters, a masterpiece of French Indochine style, were aware of its architectural origin.

“I came here because it has a unique architecture and it is a popular spot promoted by celebrities,” said Nguyen Thi Trang, 30, who showed surprise when told about its French origin.

Vietnam’s relations with France have moved from colonial to congenial. When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Hanoi in May, the two countries signed deals worth $10 billion, including on planes and satellites.

He was delighted when students at a university event addressed him in perfect French.
However, such fluency in French, once the language of the elites in Vietnam, is increasingly rare, reflecting the global decline of the langue de Moliere.

Only 400 Vietnamese high-school students picked French as one of the subjects for their graduation exams this year, according to the education ministry, whereas more than 358,000 chose English and about 4,400 opted for Chinese.

“If I must choose, I would prefer Chinese over French as the second foreign language to study because it feels more familiar. And China is our neighbor,” said Hoang Thu Ha, a 25-year-old content creator.

The French embassy in Hanoi said this year 63,000 people were registered in French language classes, with approximately 400 teachers in Vietnam.

French “retains a certain prestige” in Vietnam while other tongues were rapidly gaining ground in the country of 100 million, including Japanese and Korean, it said.

CROISSANTS AND PATE
Nowhere is the French legacy more visible than in Vietnamese gastronomy.

Cafes line virtually every street in the country, croissants are on display in myriad patisseries, and pate is regularly added to local dishes.

Baguette-shaped bread is used for the most common local fast food option, known as banh mi, a savory sandwich with unlimited fillings to please all tastes, including vegetarian.

But among the interviewed Hanoian youth, none recognized banh mi’s French roots.

Nguyen Van Hoan, a 60-year-old entrepreneur who owns a famous bakery in the centre of Hanoi, acknowledged the French legacy in the Vietnamese love for bread.

But he added that to survive, “French cuisine has had to adapt to match Vietnamese tastes.” — Reuters