Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
Imagine you are a German who has some troubles and needs a second identity to escape the law or whatever. It’s 2015. What stops him from dying his hair black, putting on some shabby clothes, and presenting himself as a newly arrived refugee with no documents? He can even draw quite a bit of money from social welfare and after half a decade he gets a brand new German passport not attached to a real person which can be extremely valuable in right circumstances. What stops him from doing this 10 times with 10 different disguises? Or a gang doing this with real refugees at scale?
There are lots of Syrians, Lebanese, even Afghans which have similar skin tones to Germans. That does not mean Germans and Syrians look alike. I'm not sure how long this ruse would last, especially as because others note, people who enable immigration fraud would not be inclined to do so on behalf of an ethnic German.
How much of the difference is due to social cues and fashions, though? In Texas there are a lot of Mexicans with <75% euro ancestry who have similar complexion and features to the scots-irish if they work indoor jobs, but who are nonetheless visually distinctive by beard and haircut stylings, manner of dress, makeup styling for women, etc. A dark-haired German in a tracksuit and buzzcut, using a trained-in accent- would he come off as Arab?
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