There has always been a movement of people around the world, because they want to explore new lands and conquer them, or they are just looking for better life standards, things they are missing in their own land or want to learn new things.
But in the past years there are lots of controversies especially around the illegal migration and how it has increased becoming a complicated issue for developed countries and also creating lots of misunderstandings around the globe. Anyway, not all the migrations are illegal nor negative for countries, so we definitely need to find a balance and a clear perspective on the topic.
So the first thing we need to do is to understand what migration really means and some thoughts around it.In a presentation on the topic made by Ana María Penagos, David Sierra, Stephanie Peñaranda and María Alejandra Piedrahita, they define migration as: “The movement of people from one place in the world to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or semipermanent residence, usually across a political boundary. “
(Image taken from Getty Images. its name is "Man showing Passport" by Matt Olson)
They also talked about ten different types of migration:
- Internal Migration: People move to a new house within their State, Country or even Continent. Let’s supposed someone from Medellin gets a new job opportunity in a different city of Colombia and moves there, that would be internal migration.
- External Migration: People move to a new place in a different State, Country and even Continent than their own. For example a Colombian ambassador in Germany would undertake external migration.
Emigration: People leave their country and move to another one. For example, many people from Mexico move to the States.
Immigration: People move into a new country. Now it would be the States getting the Mexican people.
Population Transfer: People must move unwillingly because their own government forces them out, commonly because of different ethnicity or religion. For example, after the second world war many people that came from Germany or were German descendants living in Poland territory were forced to a population transfer, since the Polish government didn’t want those German people in their country due to all the negative feelings the war left them because of the occupation and so on.
Impelled Migration: People leave their country thanks to bad conditions on their life standards, political problems or religious persecutions. One example may be people leaving in war zones such as Irak and leaving to another place looking for a better quality of life away from wars.
Step Migration: People move slowly from one place to another until they get to their final destination. A person from a little town in Bolivia wants to move to a place with coast, so that person moves first to a city in Bolivia, gain some money, then he moves to a city in the border between Bolivia and Chile and finally he moves to a city in the coast of Chile.
Chain Migration: A person moves to another place and slowly brings other members of the family to the new place where he’s living. A father moves from the country side to a city and when he’s settled there he start sending money to bring his wife and kids to the city too and later on he might bring his parents, siblings as well.
Return Migration: A person that returns to place of origin. A Colombian person living in Italy for many years, but finally decides to return to Colombia.
Seasonal Migration: People move for a period of time responding to labor or weather conditions. In China this is very common, since a lot of people from the North of the country move to the south in order to get a job, and then during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year Celebration) they return to their homes, and sometimes stayed there for a while before they return to their jobs or they go and look for a new one.
Having those definitions clear, we move to different theories about migration.
One of the most recognized theorists is Ernest Ravenstein, who developed different “Laws of Migration” around the end of the 19th Century. He presented as reasons for migration factors as: better economical opportunities and gender, social class and age influencing people’s mobility. He also defined that most of the migrants move in short distances, and that rural areas’ people tend to move more, in the same way young adults are more willingly to move internationally than families.
He also studied push and pull factors. The push factors are those that create bad conditions for the people in their own place (few job opportunities, bad health care, weak education system, natural disasters, persecutions, insecurity…), while the pull factors are good conditions that can be found in the other place (better life standards and welfare, stronger economies, security…).
Another important and today’s theorist is Oded Stark. He proposes a model where emigration can have a positive effect on the people who stayed in the country, as there is a progress of their welfare. Since the human capital of people in the country gets better because they have broader opportunities to educate themselves or further their skills, there are more job opportunities with better side benefits which finally turn into a better life quality.
With more people in the country those opportunities weren’t so broad and not all the population would be able to acquire a human capital that also gets better each time.
Somehow, this complements Ravenstein’s theory, because he talked about a utility maximization for the people remaining in the country.
Stark also defines in his theory that income differences between countries is not the only factor that can explain migration, he proposes as complementary factors secure employment, management of risk and availability of capital. He also states that it has become a collective phenomenon around the world thanks to the influence of the different political systems and the global economy.
Sometimes confusions can arise between migration and expatriation. So in their presentation Ana María Penagos, David Sierra, Stephanie Peñaranda and María Alejandra Piedrahita talk about the expatriate as: “a person who lives or works outside of his or her own home country on a non-permanent basis.”
In general, there is a risk that the expatriate must face a cultural shock that may become later an expatriate failure. It happens when people become anxious and have encountered feelings to be working in an unknown and different social and cultural environment, which leads to a bad performance in their work, and could end up with a dismissal or return home.
So in general, as María Alejandra Perez-Gonzalez showed in another presentation, people must be aware of the reality vs the expectations in migration cases.
A lot of immigrants tend to think that their lives would improve easily and that they won’t have any trouble in the process. They don’t consider the difficulties they may encounter on their way.
Another factor in order to success in these migration processes is the ability of the immigrant to adapt himself to the other culture and more importantly to get integrated in the other culture and society.
For example, with the expatriates the presentation showed that when there are: technical abilities that can be shown such as administrative skills and domestic managerial talent, relational skills like cultural empathy, flexibility and intercultural communication, motivation and family support, the expatriation process can success.
And those can be considered as basic steps for any kind of immigrant to have a positive integration in the new society.
Now, we have understood what migration means and some of the theories on their triggers to happen and consequences.
Question: How is the immigration in Germany and what challenges must the country overcome?
Germany is considered the strongest country in Europe in terms of its economy; it is the home of lots of important and strong multinationals and has been considered some sort of welfare State.
But it has become what it is today in a way thanks to many reasons, being one of them the “guest workers” that went to Germany after World War 2. In the article “Push-Pull Factors and Immigrant Political Integration in Germany” by Mr. Peter Doerschler, the author analyzes how immigrants played a role in the construction of Germany’s economy. In one of the analysis the author cites Mr. Hollifield, and how temporary workers were a key in order to stimulate and improve Germany’s postwar economy by reducing pressures on an elevating inflation and increase of wages. So Germany was able to have in some productive areas low wages and companies could be more competitive with prices, and those immigrants coming apparently for just a period of time would be able to gain a better economic status because what were low wages in Germany, were actually much more money than in their home lands.
With that especially during the period between 1955 and 1980, according to Mr. Doerschler, there was a high wave of working immigrants and their families, most of them coming from the Mediterranean such as Italian, Greeks and the larger immigrant group of Germany, Turkish.
Thanks to the positive results in the economy with the first immigrants groups, the government agreed when the guest workers ask for longer working contracts and visas’ extensions. The country gave these workers different benefits and like that the Country became each time a more attractive place for immigrants, causing larger waves of legal and illegal immigrants.
Then with the European Union, it became easier for Italian and Greek workers or even for those East European citizens as Slovenians, to get easier a job in Germany. But with improvements in their own lands it might have not been the first choice to immigrate, so according to Mr. Doerschler Germany and its goal to keep competitiveness in the global world, allow granting temporary work visas to skilled immigrants from countries non members of the European Union.
But despite a success within its economic system, these immigrants have brought some difficulties for the country and generated lots of controversies inside and outside the country. And mostly those problems arise from the lack of integration of those immigrants to the German society.
In the article “Issues in the Transformation of the European Welfare Systems” Ms. Naomi Caiden and Ms. Kseniya M. Khovanova, talked about how not only Germany but the European Union regardless of the exclusion they give their immigrants, have been attracting them and finally created a multiethnic society within their countries.
That creates different ethnic communities that encounter cultural shocks among each other and affect the proper flow of the society and then as a solution come restrictive and rougher immigration policies that according to Ms Caiden and Ms. Khovanova are outdated solutions.
The German Government has not pay enough attention on the integration of its guest workers to their society. In the same way, those immigrants are not concerned with it, since they are not looking for an integration into the society and the political system in Germany, but they come with economic interest and deep down, the German government as the guest workers have the idea of a return migration instead of a permanent settlement in the country, which at the end is just an idea but not a reality, since these workers tend to stay there.
Neither the immigrants nor the government have planned programs or taken actions for a social integration since the beginning. There are no activities that promote learning German, or that creates bonds among the guest workers and the German people.
In his book “Einwanderungsland Deutschland” (Germany a Migrations’ land) Thomas Straubhaar analyses how this lack of integration is affecting the society not only because of the reactions of immigrants and the bad perceptions from the Germans, but on the consequences it has for second and third generations of immigrants.
The kids from these immigrants are born in Germany and have to go to school and share lots of environments with German kids. But they come from home backgrounds were the German culture is not a reality and somehow it is avoided. The kids speak their parents’ tongs and get dressed according to their family culture and obviously when it’s time to go to school they suffer a cultural shock and must learn a new language to fit in the system.
Mr. Strabhaar says that the government is every time investing more in its educational system to improve it and to make it more adaptable for its immigrants’ kids. However he finds two problems that still affect the integration, on one hand the Kids need motivation and help with the German language, there needs to be a promotion of the German as a second language for these kids since they are babies. The language is the core element to be integrated in a society and it would also be essential to broader and improve the human capital of Germany and it would have a better economic and social impact.
The other thing that needs to be improved is the relationship of these kids and families with the government and trough them with the German society. The government is seemed mostly as the entity that puts restrictions for them and controls them, which creates a bad perception. But the government also takes good actions to guarantee them good living standards. Anyway, what the government needs to do is to boost lasting relationships among the immigrants and its population. Since the Germans may perceive the immigrants as people coming to take their jobs and like that they feel their rights are jeopardized, and the immigrants see the Germans as cold people that are xenophobic and attackers, there is a need to make clear for both that they are not enemies, but that with their work together they have achieved a better life style for everyone. Like that there wouldn’t be street fights or other attacks.
Still these actions can’t come from one side only, both parts must take an active position and together set parameters and foundations that make it work and last.
In his article Mr. Doerschler talks about two different Turkish immigrants and their attitudes toward Germany and the differences it makes.
One of these immigrants is Argun, who is totally motivated by economic reasons and dreams with the day he can return to the Turkey. He never has been interested in participate in the German society, he rejects the German culture and all his friends are Turkish. He belongs to a Turkish community in Berlin and there is where he has his social interactions. And as Mr. Doerschler says he has a short-term outlook for staying in Germany, but it has been a long-term stay.
The other immigrant is Omar, who opposite to Argun has done its best to integrate itself to the German society. He is aware that his conditions pass from a guest worker to an “active German worker”. He lives in Germany and he knows that the life quality he has in Germany is something he won’t have in Turkey. And actually after 30/40 years living there Turkey is not anymore his home, it is barely a memory. Of course the idea is not to lose his Turkish culture, but to adapt himself to his host country.
Finally Mr. Doerschler says that on the government side there has also been a progress relating their immigration law, since 2004 they are offering the immigrants language and integration courses in order to make them become active in the society. But the problem is that these courses stay as courses and still leave the immigrants as second class citizens.
Concerning illegal immigration too, there is as everywhere. But the chances of these illegal immigrants to success in Germany are round zero, since there are too many regulations in the labor market and companies wouldn’t take the risk to accept illegal immigrants. With this fact Mr. Strabhaar says that the problem in Germany is not the controls for immigrants avoiding illegal ones, but the crashes among the societies coexisting in the country without any clear action to improve it.
Personally, and based on previous experiences in Germany, I can say that the German people are open to people from other countries and knowing the language really helps a lot. You can have a great integration in their society and keep differences that are from your cultural background, because they accept and like all that. But as a foreigner you definitely have to make an effort to make that happen and show a genuine interest and respect for their culture.
Concerning job opportunities, it is a controlled area but it is comprehensive since they want to guarantee job spots for its population and also consider the people from the European Union. In that sense the closure comes usually from governmental bureaucracy, but nothing is impossible.
Anyway, the government still has a lot to learn a lot and change certain things when it comes to the immigration process or a simple visa procedure to study or go visiting the country.
(Photo taken from Getty Images. Name "Germany, Frankfurt, security check sign " by Tom Hoenig.)
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