You can be German even if your name is not 'Klaus' or 'Erika' -Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, August 31, 2021. Kay Nietfeld/Pool via REUTERS

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

"Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn't called Klaus or Erika," Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.