HERE TO LEAVE: POLICY TRENDS IN THE GERMAN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Morabito, Bradley C
Area of Honors:
History
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Jens-Uwe Guettel, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Kathryn Elizabeth Salzer, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
immigration
germany
guest worker
gastarbeiter
Abstract:
This thesis examines in historical context the developmental trends of German immigration policy in the latter half of the twentieth century. Chapter 1 provides context for the political and economic state of the Federal Republic of Germany during its foundation and through the post-war era, and how those political and economic factors drove the establishment of economically motivated, active recruitment programs as the normal case for immigration at the expense of underdeveloped family and emergency migration frameworks. Chapter 2 begins to examine these issues, discussing the paradigm undergirding legal frameworks that persisted despite revision after the end of the guest worker era. Instead of developing adequate social infrastructure, policy consistently tended towards elastic controls on residence and work in order to promote exclusion and expulsion, leading to integration problems. Chapter 3 discusses how integration issues contributed to a heightened awareness of border control and developing concern for the expansion of immigration policy and regulation, which was further accelerated by the surge of asylum seekers and other irregular migrants in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chapter 4 concludes with a brief summary of the historical trends that came to define German immigration after the Second World War and into the present, suggesting not that the troubles in European migration today are a direct result of the German case, but rather that policymakers and their constituents would benefit from an understanding of its historical shortcomings and successes.