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This paper examines the determinants of return migration as foreign-born men approach old age in Germany. Return migration in later life engages a different set of conditions from return migration earlier on, including the framing of return as a possible retirement strategy. Using 23 years of longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, this paper investigates how social and economic resources of immigrant men influence decisions to return 'home.' Results suggest that immigrants from former guest worker recruitment countries within the European Union are more likely to return than non- EU immigrants. In addition, return migrants are 'negatively selected' so that those with the least education and weakest attachments to the labor force are more likely to emigrate. However, findings vary greatly depending on the immigrant's age and country of origin. Results from this paper highlight the heterogeneity of older immigrants and the factors that motivate their return 'home'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the entrepreneurial endeavours of immigrants' and natives in Germany, concentrating on Turks, Germany's largest immigrant group and one under-studied in the literature. Self-employed Turks in Germany represent about 70 per cent of all Turkish entrepreneurs in the European Union. We use data from the German Socio-economic Panel to study patterns of self-employment. First, we identify the characteristics of the self-employed individuals and understand their underlying drive into self-employment. Next we investigate how immigrant entrepreneurs fare in the labour market and compare their earnings to those of the natives. It is important for decision makers to understand entrepreneurial patterns so that they can shape policy that better fosters entrepreneurial activities. This paper presents several findings that can inform better policymaking. First, our investigation indicates that education is not decisive in determining whether one will choose self-employment over salaried work nor in explaining earnings. The estimated age-earnings profiles are the same for natives and immigrants, while the proclivity to become self-employed is concave with respect to age for both groups. Immigrants' start with a higher probability to work than natives but have a slower increase in the self-employment probabilities thereafter. The earnings of self-employed immigrants' are higher initially, but their earnings path crosses eventually that of the natives. Second, we find some suggestion of ethnic entrepreneurial spirit. Turks are 70 per cent more likely to be self-employed than any other immigrant group, although they do not necessarily earn more. These patterns should be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Immigration regimes pay particular attention to the migrant's body in the process of legal and bureaucratic inscription. Legal precarity, defined by the repeated reception of short‐term protection from deportation, is an existential and deeply embodied experience. The analysis of Schwangerschaftsduldung (temporary suspension of deportation based on pregnancy) and protection for unaccompanied minors, two legal situations in Germany, can shed light on how the migrant's body receives centre stage in the process of legal status determination and shows how the long journey to relative legal stability deeply affects the body. The two legal categories have in common a temporal limitation and an association with bodily transformations. By centring on the legal trajectories of three migrants, this article shows how the body is taken as the marker of vulnerability and (un)deservingness and becomes the bearer of legal precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A profound political tension between Turkey and Germany has gained an overall dimension on the political agenda of the intra‐European migration discussion since 2016. As close trade partners, Turkey and Germany became gradually political adversaries on different issues. 2016 and the following years marked a turnover in the already worsened mutual relations. A series of political issues such as recognising the Armenian genocide in 1915, open allegations and critical views against the Turkish President and prohibition of election campaigns for Turkish government politicians in Germany had driven political relations between the two countries to nadir. This obscure situation led the Turks of Germany (The phrases "Turks of Germany" or "Turkish migrants" are persons with migration background from Turkey who still bear Turkish citizenship or formerly were Turkish citizens. This group's ethnic or confessional identity is not recognised; their legal status and country of origin are preponderant.), who have close ties to their ancestors' homeland and consider Germany as the centre of their lives, nolens volens into a limbo situation. Within the "guest‐worker program" framework in the second part of the 20th century, highly industrialised countries of Western Europe recruited migrant workers from different countries. This workforce should perform mostly blue‐collar labour in the receiving countries. After six decades of Turkish presence in Germany, the grandsons and granddaughters of the former guest workers are well‐represented in almost every sector of the society. However, their loyalty and integrability to the receiving country are challenged by German politics, especially by the governments of conservative chancellor Angela Merkel (2005–2021). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture (Workers from Turkey brought with them to the country of immigration their own "cultural assets". Those are, language, religious and customary beliefs, social habits, dress, music, literature, social codes and manners, shared history, food, etc. However, migrants in the receiving country undergo a process of hybridity under the influence of the new cultural environment. (Please see: Bhabha [The location of culture, New York, NY: Routledge, 1994]) Culture within the framework of post‐colonialism has also been discussed in Edward W. Said's book "Culture and Imperialism" (Said [Kültür ve Emperyalizm. Kapsamlı Bir Düşünsel ve Siyasal Sorgulama Çalışması. Hil Yayın: İstanbul, 1998]). If Turks of Germany feel closely connected to Turkey and Turkish culture, they are not recognised as integrable members of the society. Identity‐based and culture‐oriented policies inexorably influence the willingness of migrants to feel like equal members in the host society, and it applies even to the new generations with migration backgrounds. The question of migrant integration is the most emotionally debated issue in Germany and seems to be the greatest challenge in the political agenda. Beyond the bilateral Turkish–German issues, the growing xenophobic sentiments, islamophobia and Europe‐wide political populism may cause a persistent bilateral tension in the medium term between the countries and among the transnational and native communities. Anti‐Turkish rhetoric in the media alienates the Turkish community and has a value to jeopardise integration efforts more and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use Process Net‐Maps to visualize the irregular migration patterns of refugees and identify influential actors/factors shaping their decisions. A qualitative case study was used that included 87 Afghan and Syrian refugees (52 individual in‐depth interviews and 35 participants in five focus group discussions) residing in Stuttgart, Germany. Results show a typical pattern for respondents to first migrate to a neighboring country, and then a mixture of decisive factors induce them to migrate onward. The perspective of refugees in the destination country covers the migration processes between transit and destination countries which is vital information for the stakeholders in international migration management, and policy developments on asylum migration, integration and repatriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we compare the perceived cultural integration challenges by young Spanish migrants in Germany with the support offered by one national government initiative and one local migrant organisation. Based on qualitative interviews, we identified four inequality‐related and interrelated challenges: personal relationships, housing, company culture and bureaucracy. Our findings show that MobiPro‐EU, as an example of a government initiative, emphasises labour market integration and thereby neglects the cultural dimension of integration. The German‐Spanish Association, which is a regional example for migrant self‐support, lacks the financial means, staff and geographic scope to provide large‐scale support. We conclude that both initiatives follow a different support strategy and demonstrate shortcomings in supporting migrants. As a consequence, particularly for migrants who cannot draw on social support, for instance provided by their personal networks, the absence of effective support measures can negatively affect cultural integration into society as well as career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make sound educational decisions, students and their parents have to be informed about the way the educational system works. Such knowledge, however, tends to vary across social groups. This study investigates the differences in education‐related knowledge between native and migrant mothers in the German context. Empirical analyses based on a sample of native German mothers and mothers from Turkey or the former Soviet Union (N = 2076) indicate that migrant mothers know less about the German educational system than their native counterparts. An investigation of the potential sources of these knowledge gaps shows that migrants' weaker socio‐economic status explains a substantial part of their lower level of knowledge, particularly among families of Turkish origin. Furthermore, migrants' less profitable social network composition and lower levels of German language skills contribute to their information deficits. Based on these empirical results, the study considers opportunities for improving the knowledge base of migrant parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration movements to industrialized countries have grown in number and size, and the presence of large numbers of immigrants has raised concerns about their integration and assimilation into host societies. This article is an empirical study of assimilation of foreign nationals in Germany. Their experience may hold lessons for other relatively recent immigration destinations. As expected, language is one of the most critical factors for determining integration and assimilation at the workplace and in society. Our results indicate uneven success in these two areas, and suggest that greater language skills may be required for social assimilation, compared to economic assimilation. Among the most important findings of our study are the strong and statistically significant effects of the attitudes by Germans toward immigrants, the significant influence of the region of residence, and the ambivalence of German-born foreign residents toward naturalization and continued stay. This signals the failure of past integration and assimilation policies. The results show that negative attitudes by ethnic Germans against others at work or in society, in general, reduce interest in integration and assimilation. This is neither new nor surprising and this research does not contribute new theoretical insights, but it demonstrates the magnitude and significance of the effects. The question of why different locations seemed to have different impacts on citizenship aspirations is beyond the scope of this article. The data do not provide information to pursue this question and we suspect that the causes are too complex for a short answer. As expected, non-EU citizens showed greater interest in acquiring German citizenship than EU citizens. Finally, the results also indicate that the immediate post-World War II notion of 'guest workers' was not completely false. There has been significant return migration and a significant number of respondents to the survey say that they intend to return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Chinese migration to Germany is not very well documented, even though sojourners arrived in this country as early as the first half of the eighteenth century. There is some research on particular issues in specific historical contexts, such as the discrimination and persecution during the Third Reich (Yü-Dembski, 1996, 1997), Chinese students in Germany between 1860 and 1945 (Harnisch, 1999), Chinese-German mixed marriages (Groeling-Che, 1991), and irregular immigration and human trafficking during the 1980s and 1990s (Giese, 1999a). Yet, no systematic research on the history of Chinese migration or continuous analysis of more recent migration trends and related political issues has been carried out so far. Some of the reasons for this include: Chinese communities have always formed only a small minority among the non-German population; after World War II, Chinese communities were dispersed over the whole of (West) Germany and they have not created any visible “Chinatown” yet; and, until very recently, there seemed to be virtually no political or social problems related to Chinese migrants, and the few emerging political issues still appear insignificant compared to those related to other ethnic groups. As a result, Chinese immigration and the lives of Chinese migrants — widely ignored as a potential research topic for Modern China Studies in Germany — have not yet received attention from scholars of social sciences. This article will attempt to offer a comprehensive summary of the history of new Chinese migration to Germany from the early 1970s to the end of the second millennium. Mainly based on official statistics, it will then discuss recent trends in Chinese immigration for different groups of migrants since the 1990s, focusing on policy-related issues and political implications of these recent and potential future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the migratory movements from South European countries to North European countries, specially to the Federal Republic of Germany. It states that the Federal Republic of Germany and other North European countries have been the destination of all migration types because of their economic growth, stable politics, and developed social security systems. It also presents information on the migrants' skill profiles. It mentions the three main causes of the migratory movements, such as wars and persecution, ecological and economic burdens, and social structure changes.