Germany - Stephen Huang

Category: Immigration

Population - 82,400,996

Ethnic composition - German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)

Birth rate / death rate - 8.2 births/1,000 population and 10.71 deaths/1,000 population

Rate of immigration - 2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Reasons for immigration or emigration –
Germany's post-World War II history in immigration is composed of ethnic Germans returning from abroad foreigners with no German ancestry. Between 1945 and 1949, nearly 12 million German refugees and expellees flocked to Germany’s land. At the end of the 1980s, the immigration of Aussiedler (ethnic Germans) from places beyond Eastern Europe rose dramatically. An additional three million ethnic Germans returned to Germany between 1988 and 2003 when the Iron Curtain fell and the travel restrictions of the former Eastern Bloc countries came to an end. Basically, all the ethnic Germans that came from Germany or had family from Germany were returning home.
Between 1950 and 1987, about 1.4 million such ethnic Germans immigrated to West Germany and most of them came from Poland (848,000). In the 1950’s, Germany suffered from a labor shortage and signed a series of recruitment agreement with neighboring European countries. The recruitment of Gastarbeiter (guest workers) started and in 1960, the number of foreigners already stood at 686,000, or 1.2 percent of the total German population. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, recruitment rose dramatically after a halt and foreigners in Germany amounted to four million in 1973

Political and social reactions to immigration –
In 1973, the demand for foreign workers fell off and Germany entered a period of economic recession. The government declared a ban on the recruitment of foreign workers. To stop Asylum seekers, in1993, an inter-party agreement was created to make the asylum law more restrictive by amending the FRG's "Basic Law," or interim Constitution. Many asylum seekers were prohibited to apply and sent back to their place of origin.
Since 1998, several immigration-related bills have become law. In 2000, a new citizenship law came into force and also, the “green card” system was introduced. Through this new immigration program, about 9,614 highly skilled workers have entered Germany through December 2002. However, Germany’s turn to a more organized recruitment has been questioned by many people. Many feel that the there is a growing rate of unqualified personnel and a persistently high unemployment rate.

Source: CIA World Factbook 2007
www.migrationinformation.org