It's a complex issue. Most Turks in Germany work hard and abide the law. Especially first generation Turks. One big problem is, that to great extend Turks live in there own communities and hardly mix up with other people. It's called "Parallelgesellschaft" (parallel society). There are lot of cases of Turks (especially first generation women), who live in Germany for decades now and don't speak a single word of German. This obviously creates problems for the children that are born to this community. Those kids often are torn between two worlds and often do rather bad at school, which obviously starts a vicious circle of other problems for those kids. That's not only the fault of the Turks, but the obvious lack of integration is a huge problem. Integration doesn't necessarily mean assimilation .... but I doubt that Erdogan's comments were really helpful.

How can one seriously expect a Turkish immigrant in Germany to assimilate to a nation he is not permitted to be a citizen of?

That strikes me as absurd.

Sounds like you have this issue completely backwards.

Most of the immigrants are citizens. Sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

No it's not. Most turks who came to Germany during the last decades came just to find work and didn't care to integrate or even to achieve citizenship, because they planned to return to their home country after a few years. Obviously, many got stuck and didn't return to Turkey.

The problems we are talking about really has nothing to do with citizenship. Basically, you can become a German citizen if you have been living in the country for 7 or 8 years. A lot of Turks have obtained German citizenship. And if someone who is legally living and working in Germany for many years doesn't apply for citizenship, it's his own decision.

How is it absurd? If I moved to Saudi Arabia should I not learn Arabic, respect the Islamic nature of the Saudi kingdom and honour the heritage of the Saudi kingdom after they graciously welcomed me to live amongst them?