Migration Trends in Germany
According to Statistisches Bundesamt:
Why Germany?
Case Study: The Turks in Germany
Citations:
Bartsch, Matthias, Andrea Brandt and Daniel Steinvorth. “A Sorry History of Self-Deception and Wasted Opportunities.” Der Spiegel. Spiegel-Verlag, 7 September 2010. Web. 8 September.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/turkish-immigration-to-germany-a-sorry-history-of-self-deception-and-wasted-opportunities-a-716067.html
Chambers, Madeline. “Immigration into Germany in 2014 at highest level for two decades.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 3 September 2015. Web. 8 September 2016.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN0R30T020150903
Hil, Jenny. “Germany Struggles to Adapt to Immigration Influx.” BBC. British Broadcasting Corporation, 3 November 2014. Web. 9 September 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29686248
Statistisches Bundesamt. Press Release 246, 021, 153 & “2013: highest level of immigration to Germany for 20 years.” Statistisches Bundesamt. Web. 6 September 2016.
https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/Migration/Current.html
Watts, Joe. “Angela Merkel Calls for ‘One in, One out Immigration Deals with North Africa to Stem Refugee Crisis.” The Independent. Independent Print Limited, 23 August 2016. Web. 9 September 2016.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/angela-merkel-refugees-north-africa-immigration-crisis-turkey-deal-a7205206.html
According to Statistisches Bundesamt:
- The highest level of immigration to Germany occurred in 2013. This is the highest figure in 20 years. An estimated 1.23 million people migrated to Germany in 2013. This was a whopping 13% increase from 2012. An average of 789,000 people emigrated from Germany in 2013, constituting an 11% increase from 2012. Net immigration was 437,000, the highest figure since 1993.
- However, current high immigration will have “limited effects” on Germany's long term population trend. Germany is predicted to have short term population growth due to the surge of immigration between 2013-2015, but this will ultimately not reverse trend of its aging population. However, high net levels of immigration can lessen the repercussions as well as slow the rate of Germany's aging population.
- The gap between the numbers of people in the younger and older age groups in Germany are quite pronounced. A higher net immigration will do little to reverse this trend. In fact, by 2040, people aged 67 and older are expected to rise about 21.5 million.
In conclusion, a decline in Germany's population is inevitable. - It was also reported that 2015 was a record breaking year for immigration to Germany. An estimated 2.1 million people immigrated to the country, a large percentage of migrants coming from the Middle East and Africa and also a sizable number of economic migrants from the Balkans. This was a 46% increase since 2014. Germany's net immigration in 2015 was the highest in the country's recorded history.
- German, like many countries around the world, has a trend from moving to rural to urbanized settings.
Why Germany?
- According to BBC, Germany is the second most attractive country for immigrants, after the US.
- Majority of immigrants hail from Eastern (Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria) and Southern Europe (Italy, France). They are drawn to Germany's benefits, work, and the EU's policy of free movement of workers.
- German government eager to offset its low birth rate and skills gap in working force. Therefore, the government works to attract students and professionals.
- Willkommenskultur is a plus. It consists of free or cheap German lessons and integration lessons for foreigners. It also aims to promote acceptance of immigrants in Germany.
- Immigrant laden cities in Germany have called for more financial support (for example, to combat unemployment costs) by the German government.
- AfD and NPD are two anti immigrant parties in Germany. These two parties have enjoyed recent support because of Germany's open border policy during Europe's migrant crisis. However, many Germans favor immigration because of Germany's displacement of people in WWII.
Case Study: The Turks in Germany
- Germany has had a historical problem with integration of its Turkish immigrants.
- According to Der Spiegel, a German publication, the Turks in Germany are more likely to be uneducated, unemployed, and underpaid.
- In October 1961, West Germany signed labor recruitment contract with Turkey. At the time, the West Germany economy was booming and Germany was in need of more workers. Most Turkish guest workers in Germany were unskilled and from low income, rural areas of Turkey. The Turks were recruited, then put on trains to Munich. From Munich, they were sent to various industrial areas around Germany.
- The Turks lived in housing around the factories in which they were employed. There was almost no effort to integrate the new Turkish migrants with the existing German population. For that reason, many Turks only knew one another and couldn’t speak German. They were essentially confined to their own ethnic communities.
- The plan was that the Turkish guest workers would return to Turkey after a couple years’ work, but the system was not well regulated. The political situation in Turkey was uncertain at the time and the Germany economy so profitable that many Turks just remained in Germany.
- In the early 1970’s, the Germany economy faced a lapse in productivity. The Germany and Turkey labor contract was stalled. Many Turks in Germany, unsure of their future, sent for their families in Turkey. Turks began moving out factory housing into poor neighborhoods with cheap apartments. Germans in response evacuated these areas, almost like the “white flight” in many inner cities in the US. Today’s Germany boasts many ethnic neighborhoods.
- In the mid 1970’s, the consensus was that the Turks in Germany were here to stay, but no real integration efforts were initiated on the part of German government. Contradictory plans arouse. The message of many politicians until the 1990’s was that the Turks were eventually going to return to Turkey.
- For example, some classes in schools were taught in Turkish, not to promote bilingualism and cultural awareness, but so Turkish children would know their mother tongue when they returned to Turkey. As a result, a generation of children who were neither fluent in German nor Turkish occurred, leaving these children with poor future employment prospects.
- Germany realized its problem too late. They had imported mainly lower class, uneducated and unskilled works. This didn’t bode well when the Germany economy started to require more skilled labor. Germany was left with its population of mostly unskilled Turkish migrants.
- For the rest of the decade, the attitude towards Turkish migrants from the German public was not favorable. To send or not to send the “foreigners” home was a decisive political topic. Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany from 1982-1998, did not promote a welcoming atmosphere towards the Turks.
- Today, Germany as a whole is much more in favor of integration of its foreign citizens. Offering Islam in schools is an example of a future prospect that will affect not only the Turkish generations, but also the new asylum seekers in Germany.
Citations:
Bartsch, Matthias, Andrea Brandt and Daniel Steinvorth. “A Sorry History of Self-Deception and Wasted Opportunities.” Der Spiegel. Spiegel-Verlag, 7 September 2010. Web. 8 September.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/turkish-immigration-to-germany-a-sorry-history-of-self-deception-and-wasted-opportunities-a-716067.html
Chambers, Madeline. “Immigration into Germany in 2014 at highest level for two decades.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 3 September 2015. Web. 8 September 2016.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN0R30T020150903
Hil, Jenny. “Germany Struggles to Adapt to Immigration Influx.” BBC. British Broadcasting Corporation, 3 November 2014. Web. 9 September 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29686248
Statistisches Bundesamt. Press Release 246, 021, 153 & “2013: highest level of immigration to Germany for 20 years.” Statistisches Bundesamt. Web. 6 September 2016.
https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/Migration/Current.html
Watts, Joe. “Angela Merkel Calls for ‘One in, One out Immigration Deals with North Africa to Stem Refugee Crisis.” The Independent. Independent Print Limited, 23 August 2016. Web. 9 September 2016.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/angela-merkel-refugees-north-africa-immigration-crisis-turkey-deal-a7205206.html