Political correctness has a negative connotation but in many cases I wholeheartedly agree with being more careful about the words we use. Particularly words we use to label people. In Germany we always had many people with non-Germanic ancestory – being in the middle of Europe that comes with the territory (sic!). Nowadays many of these people are often visibly non-Germanic (which can be half-jokingly referred to as bio-Germans). But many of them are second or third generation immigrants. How do you call them without being offensive. They are to all intents and purposes German so “foreigner” (as they used to be called) is wrong, open references to their looks are complete no-goes. Often it is not necessary to call them anything at all. But occasionally when talking about schooling, about job opportunities,about living areasm etc. a label seems necessary.
In Germany, we now describe these people with the unwieldy but accurate “people with migrational background” (Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund).
pictures imperfect blog 