From Guestworkers To Immigrants Germany Becoming An Immigration Country

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1, Hamburg University of Ecomomy and Policy, course: Labour Migration in Europe, language: English, abstract: Immigration patterns have changed significantly since the first guestworkers came to Germany in the mid-1950 ́s. In the times of the “Wirtschaftswunder” the Germans imported foreigners on a temporary basis. However most of the foreigners remained in Germany and became real immigrants. Today Germany has to cope with huge problems concerning the integration of the residing foreign population, while on the socio-economic indicators clearly show the necessity for further immigration. This is mainly due to the demographic downturn and the need for high-qualified specialists to enhance Germanys economy, which is facing serious problems in a globalising world. This paper will analyse, why the German society was to a high degree not able to integrate the working-migrants and why it refuses further immigration, which is obviously contrary to the facts the Country will have to face in the 21st century. Hereby the role of the media and the politics will be encountered as a decisive one. Media not only plays an important role in transporting public opinion and news but also generates it. Deriving from that, media has a special responsibility in society. Political parties as the other imoprtant social force also tend to use the “Ausländer”-issue especially in the election campaigns. Some parties tend to make the immigrants their scapegoats, often with the intention of frightening people and by that grabbing votes. This paper will give an overwiev on the discussions and facts about immigration from the post-war period until the german reunification. Hereby the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ period in the 1950 ́s and 1960 ́s. and the period starting with the oil-crisis in 1973 until the unification in 1990 will be seperately analysed. In the third part, possible reasons for the German situation will be presented, also including the role of politics and the media. The latest discussions about the fear of islamism, “unsucessful” integration of foreigners and the fear of parallel societies in Germany will be examined as well as the call for a German Leading-Culture. [...]

Monograph examining the living conditions and related sociological aspects of migrant workers residing in Germany, Federal Republic - reviews the evolution of migration in Western Europe since 1945, focuses on housing, social stratification and social integration of guestworkers in West germany, considers their civil rights and political participation, and investigates social policies and educational policies concerning migrant education programmes for immigrant children. Bibliography pp. 247 to 258, references and statistical tables.

This volume discusses some economic aspects of immigration with special refer ence to the case of Germany. Immigration has become a major issue in Germany. Germany still does not have an official immigration policy in spite of the fact that more than 8 percent of the residents are non-citizens and that Germany · s immigration figures almost have reached the US figures. The foreign Iabor supply strongly influences the German Iabor market. The bulk of foreign workers is employed in certain industries. In some industries (mining, steel) 20 and more percent of the employees are foreign workers. Most foreign workers are blue collar workers with low wages. The Iabor demand for immigrants has declined in the last 15 years while the foreign population and Iabor supply has increased. As a consequence, foreigners experience higher unemployment rates than Germans. The fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the communist regimes in East Europe further increased the blue collar Iabor supply and strengthened the competition for foreign workers on the German Iabor market.

Recognizing that the US is an immigrant country and Germany is not, historians and demographers from each describe how the two countries have come to have the largest number of immigrants among advanced industrial countries; how their conception of citizenship and nationality differ; and how their ethnic compositions are likely to change in the next century as a consequence of migration, fertility trends, citizenship and naturalization laws, and public attitudes. The entire series focuses on Germany and the US. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Fear of the Family offers a comprensive postwar history of guest worker migration to the Federal Republic of Germany, particularly from Greece, Turkey, and Italy. It analyzes the West German government's policies formulated to get migrants to work in the country during the prime of their productive years but to try to block them from bringing their families or becoming an expense for the state.

The topic of immigration is never simple. Questions such as ‘who belongs to society?’ and ‘how do you define national identity?’, or ‘what values are needed to maintain a coexisting society?’ are extremely difficult to answer. Global migration introduces unprecedented challenges for conceptualising the integration of immigrants. On a European scale, Germany can be said to represent the first destination for immigrants since its unification in 1989. On a global level, Germany is the second largest immigrant receiving country after the United States. Nevertheless, only recently has Germany recognised and admitted that it is an ethnically and culturally diverse society. Before the 1998 elections, successive governments have always stuck to the maxim that Germany is ‘not a country of immigration’. The infamous phrase came under increased pressure with the electoral victory of the Red-Green coalition in 1998. New laws regarding immigration, integration and citizenship were on the agenda with the aim of replacing the traditional ethnocultural model of German nationhood with a more liberal and modern model by moving away from the concepts of Volk and ius sanguinis. The conservative CDU, however, accused the Schroder government of trying to jeopardize German cultural identity, causing a fierce debate known as the Leitkultur (Guiding culture) debate. On the one side of this debate there were the conservative CDU politicians who viewed Germany in ethno-nationalist terms, while on the other members of the Green Party and the SPD, who attempted substituting the ‘volkish’ tradition with a multicultural model of citizenship that guaranteed universal human rights. The aim of this study is to assess which of these two models are currently prevailing in moulding immigration and integration policy. Has the progressive left achieved its objective of moving away from the traditional ethnocultural and assimilationalist model defining citizenship towards a more inclusive multicultural model?

Turkish Guest Workers in Germany tells the post-war story of Turkish "guest workers," whom West German employers recruited to fill their depleted ranks. Jennifer A. Miller's unique approach starts in the country of departure rather than the country of arrival and is heavily informed by Turkish-language sources and perspectives. Miller argues that the guest worker program, far from creating a parallel society, involved constant interaction between foreign nationals and Germans. These categories were as fluid as the Cold War borders they crossed. Miller's extensive use of archival research in Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands examines the recruitment?of workers, their travel, initial housing and work engagements, social lives, and involvement in labour and religious movements. She reveals how contrary to popular misconceptions, the West German government attempted to maintain a humane, foreign labour system and the workers themselves made crucial, often defiant, decisions. Turkish Guest Workers in Germany identifies the Turkish guest worker program as a postwar phenomenon that has much to tell us about the development of Muslim minorities in Europe and Turkey's ever-evolving relationship with the European Union.