Migration to Germany - Research Questions and First Results

Germany has been an immigration country for more than 30 years now, although many politicians persistently claim the opposite and many people in Germany are inclined to agree with their assessment. However, it is the actual experience with immigration, and not what people would like to experience nor legal or administrative definition, which qualifies a country as an immigration country. On this grounds it seems safe to argue that any assessment of Germany as "no immigration country" is far from reality. The well-documented (see. e.g. Schmidt 1996; Schmidt, Zimmermann 1992; 1995) history of immigration to Germany since the 1950s clearly suggests the conclusion that postWorldWar II-Germany in fact has been and still is an immigration country. Moreover, the German experience with immigration is not an isolated phenomenon. Since the end ofWorldWar II Europe as a whole which was an emigration region in the 19th century has made its way through a transition process to an immigration region (see e.g. Chiswick, Hatton 2001). In the course of this transition process Germany has become the main receiving country within Europe at least in absolute terms..[...]