Germany: An undeclared immigration country

Germany has in recent years acquired the status coming second only to the US in terms of how many immigrants she receives. After the fall of the Berlin wall, large numbers of East Germans made their way to West Germany. Increasing numbers of ethnic Germans from the CIS, Poland and Romania and asylum seekers ‐ particidarly from South Eastern Europe and the Third World‐ made their way to Germany. The border is open to EU member nationals and it has been decided to accept Jews from the CIS and new migrant workers from Eastern Europe. A quota of 220.000 ethnic Germans per year was established in 1993. Germany has yet to adjust to this situation. The various terms for immigrants stress their otherness, naturalisation is a very slow process and according the official policy Germany is ‘not an immigration country’. The majority party in government has used the issue of xenophobia to raise the political stakes, thereby occasioning unrest, political crisis and street violence. After the crisis, there are indications that these contradictions can be solved over the next few years and that German society is more open and tolerant than the current political agenda initially suggests.