E/CN.4/1996/72 page 7 permanent feature. In the main, this is a matter of the Turkish issue which is a difficult one which is complicated by intra-Turkish disputes connected with the question of the Kurds. 23. The Turks resident in Germany are the largest alien colony, numbering over 2 million out of 7 million foreigners in the country. This population is in its third generation: born, educated and trained in Germany, following the same school, university and vocational studies as people of German stock, the second and particularly the third generation of immigrants have in general no more than emotional ties with Turkey. On reaching their majority they discover that they are not German; they do not have German nationality. They are conscious of this, for example, on getting married and when submitting official documents. Few of them are integrated and have acquired German nationality; unlike foreigners from the European Union, they cannot take part in municipal elections. Up to the time of the Special Rapporteur’s mission the question of dual nationality was not resolved. The German law, which is 82 years old, and the Turkish law, do not allow dual nationality. Agreements are currently being negotiated between the two States to determine a policy on dual nationality, which is something that would facilitate the "integration" of the Turks. But the difficulty remains that the latter, in general, want to have the status of "national minority" like the two other national minorities, the Danes and the Swabians. 24. Efforts still need to be made to change mental attitudes in favour of the acceptance of a multicultural German society, a matter that is being actively addressed by the Commissioners for Aliens. Efforts should also be made to improve the reception of asylum-seekers. The question is complicated by the European third State clause - and the flood of asylum-seekers from the former Yugoslavia and from the countries of Eastern Europe gives Germany the feeling that, more than any other European State, it is bearing the brunt of the burden of immigration. 25. The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations: (a) Living conditions in the holding centres should be improved and the humanitarian aspect should be taken into account in the refoulement of irregular immigrants. (b) A more humane solution than refoulement should be found, in particular, for Vietnamese and Mozambicans who were working under contract in the former German Democratic Republic and whom reunification did not take into account. (c) Lastly, an anti-racist law against anti-Semitism and against xenophobia should be adopted. 26. In addition to his findings, the Special Rapporteur transmitted to the German Government allegations of incidents that may have been racially motivated. The observations of the German Government on this matter are annexed to this report (annex I).