Immigration to Germany
In the last decades, the title of the most popular migration destination should be definitely given to Germany in the world. Germany has already become the second widespread place for permanent immigrants after the USA. Since World War II, Germany has been a basic migration center of the world and the increasing number of guest workers, ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet area, as well as asylum-seekers from the Middle East caused the expansion of immigrants in the country. From the beginning of the 1990s until now, the world population began to elaborate to Germany more than other regions. Similarities between two periods (1990s years and now) of immigration to Germany are employment and asylum aspects, whereas the basic difference is observed in the migrant discrimination.
The first main similarity of each period is job opportunities. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany confronted structural challenges in the financial issues. As a result of the development of the economy, major industrial cities were the center of the labor force. Due to the vast geopolitical changes of the era, the number of "guest workers" from Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia and the Kurdish region of Turkey increased significantly, and total figure reached to peak level 1500.000 during 1990s years (Anthony, 2015). In the same way, after 2008 World Economic Crisis unemployment syndrome speared especially in the Southern Europe; therefore, Greece (20.623), Italy (32.862) and Spain (23.993) citizens migrated to Germany for job opportunities (Immigration in Germany-The Statistics, 2014). Even though these countries suffer from the highest youth unemployment, different job seeker agencies suggested them job-related vacancies in Germany. Obviously, these historical events indicate that although immigrants were from different regions of Europe (East and South), Germany has been a fundamental core of the labor force for newcomers.
The second resemblance of both stages is asylum factor, in other word, a status of newcomers which is directly related to political issues. After collapsing of communism in Europe, the great wave of migration from Eastern Bloc countries (the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe) preferred to Germany in order to seek asylum. According to the investigations of the Migration Policy Institute, three million ethnic Germans re-migrated to the hometown after the ending of Cold War. In addition, approximately 2.2 million immigrants from the Soviet Union with Poland (575.000) and Romania (220.000) settled in Germany. Consequently, the German government provided them with living standards and accommodations (Veysel, 2004). The same circumstances happened again in 2015, and Muslim refugees migrated to "safe country" for asylum because of civil war in Syrian. At the present, refugees from the Middle East live in the camps, even their citizenship issues have been discussed in the government (John, 2015). Both situations explain that Germany has been the main migrant center for newcomer refugees not only for past period, and also for the 21ˢᵗ century.
Despite these similarities, discrimination factor has noticed among immigrants. Though Germany is a multicultural and tolerant country for world citizens with pull factors, the migration policy related to ethnic minorities is various between 1990s years and the current era.
The major difference between two immigration terms is religious diversity. Clearly, newcomers displaced among Christians countries in the last century; therefore, any religious discrimination was not observed in the German community. However, in comparison with last decades, most of the immigrants are Muslims at the present and they tolerate ethnic diversification. Obviously, anti-Islamic attitudes have existed in the German society for centuries; however, terrorism and islamophobia have led to changing of the migration policy in the 21ˢᵗ century. Especially, after the Paris attack accident (13 November 2015), the equal behavior was not contemplated among all immigrants. For instance, protection of the borders was discussed among European leaders, in other word, Paris terror act modified attitude with illegal refugees. Furthermore, different negative speeches were sounded among German officials in order to end asylum seekers (Michael, 2015). Logically, these facts indicate that migration policy has already altered in Germany significantly due to the growth of the number of Muslims. Therefore, the German administration considers undocumented migrants as inner security for integration processes.
In conclusion, despite different historical situations of the both periods, the growth of the job opportunities appealed migrants from various regions in Germany. In addition, the German government opened gates for asylum seekers in the 1990s years as well as the 21ˢᵗ century and provided them with accommodations. In contrast, while the religious factor was not a top rank issue in the 1990s years, ethnic diversification has influenced alteration of the immigration policy in the 21ˢᵗ century. All considered, I firmly believe that due to the number of immigrants, Germany will maintain a high level in the next decades, and as a democratic state, it should overcome stereotypes related to ethnic groups.
Works Cited:
1.Anthony Advincula. “Labor Shortage: Germany Needs More Immigrants.”http://www.alternet.org/world/labor-shortage-germany-needs-more-immigrants. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jan. 2015.
2.“Immigration in Germany - The Statistics | Made in Germany.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kHredDs-IY. N.p., 2 July 2014. Web.
3.John Lichfield. “Germany Opens Its Gates: Berlin Says All Syrian Asylum-Seekers Are Welcome to Remain, as Britain Is Urged to Make a ‘Similar Statement.’”http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-opens-its-gates-berlin-says-all-syrian-asylum-seekers-are-welcome-to-remain-as-britain-is-10470062.html. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.
4.Micheal Dalder. “‘Paris Changes Everything’: Merkel’s Allies Call for German Refugee Policy Changes.” https://www.rt.com/news/322208-paris-attacks-german-policy/. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
5.Veysel Oezcan. “Germany: Immigration in Transition.”http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/germany-immigration-transition. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 July 2004.
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