Migrants and Germans can learn from each other: Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (AP File Photo)

Chancellor Angela Merkel says newcomers to Germany must learn the country’s values and customs, but that Germans can also learn from them. More than 1 million asylum seekers have arrived in the past two years, and Germany’s been working hard on integration.

Speaking in her weekly podcast, in a question-and-answer form with a Syrian journalist who arrived as a refugee in 2015, Merkel emphasised migrants need to respect Germany’s values of “tolerance, openness, freedom of religion and freedom of expression” and also “be a little curious about our way of life.”

On the flip side, Merkel says Germans should be open, and “seize upon it as a possibility to learn and experience more.”

Merkel meets with three organisations next week to thank them for their help with migrants.