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With increasing migration and mobility, German at the workplace has become an important topic in the field of German as a foreign Language/German as a second language. Vocational language skills can be measured with the help of various tests for the profession. The Goethe-Test PRO: German for professionals (GTP) is one of those tests that provides evidence of vocational language skills. This article first deals with the vocational orientation, the test format and the adaptive test procedure of the GTP. The second part of this paper is devoted to the description of its psychometric quality. Finally, the results are discussed with regard to the relevance of vocational tests for German as a foreign language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, more asylum seekers entered the Federal Republic of Germany than at any previous time in its history. This unleashed the greatest wave of antiforeigner violence in Germany since the end of World War II. In the midst of this crisis, over a thousand Germans wrote to President Richard von Weizsäcker to share their views on the asylum debate and antiforeigner violence. Many letter writers turned to the experience and memory of the Third Reich and the immediate postwar years in order to explain their attitudes toward asylum seekers and antiforeigner violence. While some letter writers, outraged at the violence, proclaimed "never again," more called upon memories of the Nazi era and the immediate postwar years to argue that Germany had no responsibility to care for asylum seekers. The analysis of these letters sheds new light on German attitudes toward asylum seekers as well as German memory of World War II. The article argues that while Germany's Holocaust-centered memory culture gained ground during the 1990s, memories of World War II that emphasized German victimization followed by heroic renewal proved to be both durable and widespread. Memories of the Nazi era and the war years informed Germans' attitudes on one of the most burning political issues facing the young Berlin Republic: what should be done about the arrival of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers? This article also seeks to complicate our understanding of the relationship between Holocaust memory and racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with constructing and/or reproducing sites of national memory and cultural heritage among Georgian immigrant communities in the USA (New York City) and Germany (Berlin and Regensburg). Georgian immigrant communities in the USA and Germany consist of "old" and "new" arrivals, with people of various ages as well as different professional and employment backgrounds. We try to address the questions: how do socio-economic challenges, legal immigration status, job opportunities and living conditions influence immigrants' attitudes toward national identity and culture? How do plans to stay and integrate into host societies define the ways immigrants "practice" nationalism? The symbolic realm of Georgian immigrant communities in the USA and Germany consists of both tangible and intangible sites of national identity and memory, as well as cultural heritage. We reflect on how national identity is "crystalized" and represented in material and physical settings (churches, and icon corners at home, for instance) and in certain national, cultural, and religious practices. These practices as cultural expressions manifest in preserving the native language, adhering to the Christian faith, celebrating Orthodox Christian holidays, learning national songs and dances, maintaining traditional cuisine, and eating habits, and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involuntarily or planned – many refugees flee their home country alone, leave behind spouses and children but also siblings, parents and other family members they otherwise care for. Reunification in hosting communities is difficult, as governments limit institutional family reunifications and the individual journey of kin is dangerous and often illegal. Having family abroad is mentally distressing for refugees, as kin might not live in safety. Additionally, reuniting with family members can be a source of support in the new environment. Grounded in theories of mental distress and social support, this analysis investigates the association between family reunifications and refugee mental health in a random sample of refugees in Germany (N = 6610), the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees 2016–2018. By means of panel fixed-effect regression analysis, we observe institutionally sponsored but also individual moves of other family members. The study finds that family reunification has a positive association with refugee mental health, though not at an equally increasing rate for each additional member of the family. Gender differences show in the size of association, yet significant heterogeneous associations between refugee men and women cannot be observed. Finally, the associations are larger when only observing reunifications with the nuclear family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the factors that drive municipalities to become active in the field of migration and migration-related diversity? Based on qualitative data from 126 German municipalities, this article proposes a new conceptual framework that allows for larger-scale comparisons and enables theory building on policy (in)activity at the local level. Setting the scene, the article discusses various theoretical approaches and empirical findings from the literature by using a heuristic of four categories of factors: institutional framework (e.g. competencies, discretionary spaces, multilevel governance), structural conditions (e.g. urbanity/rurality, socioeconomic conditions); local discourses (i.e. narratives creating a local space of possibilities), and local key actors (e.g. mayors, street-level bureaucrats). Empirically assessing the relative importance of these factors, the article focusses on local integration plans. In the German context, a municipality usually establishes an integration plan to actively control the outcome of integration processes, e.g. by orchestrating local stakeholders or allocating resources. Thus, the development of an integration plan can be used as a proxy for a municipality's appetite to strategically engage with migration and migration-related diversity. As a result, the article proposes the 'ISDA framework of local migration policymaking', which distinguishes between 'defining factors' (institutional framework, structural conditions) and 'transformative factors' (discourses, actors). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the open-door refugee policy initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2015, approximately 550,000 refugee women, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Germany. Studies that address the realities of immigrant Muslim women, primarily through the perspective of intersectionality, do not pay enough attention to the millions of immigrants whose legal status is as yet undefined. This article explores the experiences of hijab-wearing refugee women in Berlin and how they are viewed as the 'other' in a multicultural country like Germany. Focusing on refugees who arrived in Germany in the last five years, we conducted interviews with 25 refugee Muslim women. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three central themes: (1) racism, violence and exclusion; (2) empowerment and liberation; and (3) preserving identity and belonging to a community. The women's narratives demonstrate how this added dimension of subordination – refugeeness – transforms their lived experiences, highlighting the lingering centrality of citizenship in an age many identify as post- or transnational. Intersectional analysis of the interviews suggests that gender, racism and Islamophobia, and legal status cannot be entirely disentangled and that Muslim refugee women who wear the hijab, often experience very different forms of discrimination than their non-hijab wearing counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German government recently made a large number of changes to migration legislation, in relation to asylum seekers and refugees who have immigrated since 2015. While the impact of some reforms may be socio–political, most of them also have fiscal implications. This study uses generational accounting to analyse the effects of these legislative changes on the German fiscal system. The results show that these reforms will likely have overall positive effects on future German public finances; they also highlight the importance of successful integration in general and the positive financial contributions accruing from the immigration of relatively young and skilled workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of human and cultural capital represent two approaches for analysing the processes related to the accumulation and use of educational resources that are valuable for young movers. Many studies on youth mobility employing these approaches often do not sufficiently consider the existing barriers to cultural capital in different moments of life. This paper aims to scrutinise theses dynamics related to social inequalities in the accumulation of cultural capital (i.e. school to university transitions), and in the use of cultural stocks (i.e. university to work shift) among young intra-EU movers in Germany. Drawing on qualitative data, our empirical discussion shows that informal cultural capital gains are crucial for both types of life transitions but can be particularly challenging for some newcomers. For those who are transitioning from school to university, informal learning is relevant in the acquisition of cultural capital, and among those who are changing to the work life, informal learning is relevant for the adequate use of existing capital stocks during the labour market integration. We conclude that life transitions among young EU movers can involve particular types of risks and (symbolic) barriers, portraying a differentiated picture of social inequalities in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short article responds to Ron Eyerman and Giuseppe Sciortino, eds, The Cultural Trauma of Decolonization: Colonial Returnees in the National Imagination (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). The response considers the main themes of the book, including cultural trauma and the violence of decolonization. It suggests that these and other avenues of interest might benefit from including case studies that are missing here: German expellees, and colonial "returnees" in Russia and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies implemented to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections created unprecedented challenges for social movements. Most striking was the de facto temporary suspension of the right to assembly. Using the case of pro-migrant mobilizations in Germany as an example, we analyse how social movements are affected by and respond to this exceptional context. Instead of a breakdown, we find evidence for a proliferation of mobilization. This is surprising since COVID-19 related restraints were particularly accentuated for pro-migrant mobilizations. We argue that this puzzle can be explained by looking at the particular framing strategies and the hybrid online and offline protest practices used by activists. Integrating empirical insights of social movements in times of crisis, theoretical approaches to boundary spanning, intersectional frame bridging, and hybrid combinations of online and offline protest, our article provides an analysis of pro-migrant mobilizations in times of pandemic. It also sketches-out avenues for future research on plural alliance formation in diverse societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes on whether immigrants should culturally adapt to their receiving society or maintain the customs of their origin context vary – not only between majority and minority populations but also within these groups. Focusing on adolescents in the German context, this study investigates whether such acculturation attitudes are shaped by the ethnic composition of a person's neighbourhood context. Building on arguments from theories of intergroup contact, concentration effects and reactive ethnicity, we expect different effects for minority and majority adolescents. To empirically investigate these expectations, we combine survey data on N = 4621 adolescents and their parents with geocoded information on the characteristics of their neighbourhood contexts. Exploiting an intergenerational set-up to account for neighbourhood selection, we find indication of neighbourhood effects among minority adolescents. Among majority youth, acculturation attitudes turn out to be unrelated to neighbourhood ethnic composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluates the interplay between the effects of host countries' characteristics and self‐selection patterns of immigrants from a highly developed country on their economic assimilation in other developed countries. The focus is on immigrants originated from Germany during 1990–2000 who migrated to Sweden and the US. The results show that almost all German immigrants reached full earnings assimilation with natives of similar observed attributes, and that the assimilation of highly educated Germans was better than that of the less educated. It was also found that the skilled immigrants were compensated for their human capital acquired in Germany. Finally, the better assimilation of German immigrants, especially the highly educated, took place in the US. This finding was probably the result of an interaction between the Germans' pattern of self‐selection and the US context of reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retirement migration from Germany to Turkey is practiced by both former labour migrants from Turkey who spent their working lives in Germany, and by German retirees without prior migration backgrounds who have discovered Turkey as a retirement destination in the context of tourism. This article presents findings from the empirical investigation of cross-border mobility patterns and motivations among both groups of retirees who are mobile between Germany and popular tourist destinations in the district of Antalya in Turkey. We argue in this article that mobile ageing practices not only exhibit similarities across the two groups, but are also significantly shaped by conditions over which both groups exercise very limited or no control. Economic inequalities, legal insecurities and health imponderabilities emerged as relevant dimensions in our research. Examining how mobile retirees cope with these, we suggest the concept of tactical mobility to make sense of their cross-border migration practices and the reasonings that undergird them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When in 2015–2016, several hundred thousand new asylum-seekers arrived in Germany, this put local administrations to a test. In contrast to scholars who identified a "crisis of the administration" or a situation of "state failure", this article argues that the events in some cases served as a motor for administrative change. Drawing on the sociology of organizations, the paper shows that this period is better understood as a time of fundamental uncertainty rather than a crisis of the administration, and that the local state proved capable of dealing with uncertainty. In line with theories of organizations and based on qualitative interview data collected in three German cities, the paper identifies two ideal-typical strategies for reducing uncertainty – externalization or change through imitation. The text demonstrates how two of the three municipalities moved towards change. [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]

In this article, the history of emigration from Germany and the immigration to Germany especially in relation to its changing borders in the 20th century is discussed. After 1945 Germany was confronted with the integration of a million German refugees. Starting in the 1950s, Germany intentionally attracted foreign workers, and integrated them fairly well. The article analyses the current discussions in Germany in relation to the impact of massive immigration of refugees from non-European areas around 2015. It concludes with a position that in the time of globalisation migration needs a society-focussed and political learning process which has not yet ended and will require more learning. But countries with a declining population are well advised to see immigration as an opportunity for future growth and social diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the case of Berlin, this article examines civil society actors in relation to local bordering practices following the large number of refugee arrivals in 2015. Combining critical border, migration, and urban studies and adopting a Foucauldian lens, the article aims to illustrate to what extent civil society actors have challenged and transformed local bordering practices vis‐à‐vis refugees within a specific urban space. The analysis illustrates that civil society actors have created new spaces of inclusion for refugees and brought new political and normative challenges to the established notions of belonging. On the other hand, they have also reproduced bordering practices either by their integration into formal state structures or by reinforcing hierarchical categorizations and unequal power relations embedded in the notion of humanitarianism. Finally, the article argues that these de/re‐bordering practices of civil society actors should be understood in line with the constraints that established bordering processes and the existing political and structural dynamics placed on them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explore young immigrant production of knowledge about migration processes in the Federal Republic of Germany. It mentions that archive of the Körber Foundation contains thousands of submissions, spanning several decades, to the German Federal President's History Competition. It also mentions about knowledge encountered in schools and mass media about migration.

Grounded in experiences in German migration policy since 2015, this article criticizes Robert Heimburger's approach to migration due to its lack of theological distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 refugee crisis is at the center of public and political discourse across Europe, especially among nations that have accepted refugees. Utilizing ethnographic fieldwork and 48 in-depth interviews conducted in 2011 and 2016 with Iranians in Hamburg, Germany, this paper considers how the refugee crisis impacts the racial boundaries between Germans and immigrant communities. It details how the crisis has made ethnic nationalism, Islamophobia, anti-foreigner prejudice and racism more pronounced and salient throughout Germany. The interviews demonstrate that this climate affects Iranians in several ways: they cite feeling more threat and stigma, as well as experiences of marginality, perpetual foreignness, and discrimination. This research contributes to sociological scholarship on migration and race by examining how critical international events influence and shape processes of racialization, identity and belonging, and social boundaries and hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a sizable Alevi religious minority among the predominantly Sunni Muslim immigrant community from Turkey in Germany. Based on dissertation research among Alevis between 2010 and 2013, this article investigates the experiences of Alevis, currently living in Germany, who trace their background to locations within the boundaries of the Turkish nation. Music has been a particularly important mode through which Alevis in Germany have articulated collective histories and have fashioned terms for belonging to multiple and sometimes conflicting identities. Music, sacred or not, plays a vital role in Alevi identity formation and has deep kinesthetic and symbolic meaning for the Alevis. One of the essential social activities for the members of Alevi community has been attending türkü bars, musical venues that feature "folk music" along with other kinds of music from Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Mothers on the Move: Reproducing Belonging Between Africa and Europe" by Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg is presented. The book recounts the experiences of Cameroonian women who migrated to Berlin, Germany and who are trying to belong to their new country by giving birth in Germany. Topics include the stereotype that Africans in Europe have limited skills, their motivations to migrate, and the migratory process.

The article examines the immigration dilemma faced by the German government after 2015 as the nation received over 1.17 million applications for asylum in 2016. Topics covered include the link between the increase in asylum applications and the success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in regional elections and the survival of immigration reforms. The continuation of liberalization of immigration policy in the country is also cited.

What influences parties' issue attention towards immigration and integration? This study provides answers to this question by focusing on the party competition at the regional level in Germany, a country that has been strongly affected by the refugee crisis. Building on a novel data set which covers altogether 510 electoral manifestos during 108 federal and regional elections between 1990 and 2016, we assess the influence of party-specific, situational as well as structural factors on issue attention towards immigration and integration policies. Using descriptive statistics and regression analysis, we find that parties' attention is significantly associated with citizens' attention towards these issues. Furthermore, ideologically conflicting parties differ considerably in the share of their manifestos they devote to the issue. Interestingly, the electoral threat by populist radical right parties has no effect on the issue attention of mainstream competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effects of immigration restrictions on the cultural assimilation of second-generation migrants. In our theoretical model, when mobility is free, individuals with a stronger taste for their native culture migrate temporarily. When immigration is restricted, however, these individuals are incentivized to relocate permanently. Permanent emigrants procreate in the destination country and convey their cultural traits to the second generation, who will therefore find assimilation harder. We test this prediction by using the 1973 immigration ban in Germany (Anwerbestopp) as a quasi-experiment. Since the ban only concerned immigrants from countries outside the European Economic Community, they act as a treatment group. According to our estimates, the Anwerbestopp has reduced the cultural assimilation of the second generation. This result demonstrated robustness to several checks. We conclude that restrictive immigration policies may have the unintended consequence of delaying the intergenerational process of cultural assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the refugee crisis in Germany in 2015 and 2016 and eligibility conditions and other curtailments to benefits accorded to asylum seekers. Topics discussed include statistics on asylum applications, decisions granting protection and pending cases before the Federal Office for Asylum and Migration, legal framework for the asylum application process, claimants' legal status pending the decision-making and statutory law on the constitutional right to a subsistence minimum.

How receiving society members perceive and respond to immigration are crucial factors that shape the context of reception for immigrants coming to a new country. In this paper, we examine these processes through the lens of intergroup contact research, with a focus on relations between immigrants and members of receiving societies, to discern ways in which receiving societies are or are not welcoming toward immigrants. Reviewing recent theorizing with illustrative empirical studies and ongoing programs of research that focus on new immigrants in Germany and the United States, we describe how direct and indirect forms of positive and negative contact can serve either to facilitate or inhibit positive immigrant‐receiving community relations. We also discuss factors that may contribute to the emergence of positive and negative contact experiences between immigrants and receiving society members. We close with a discussion of policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers insights on the impact of prolonged forced migration on the hospitality of countries. Topics discussed include the initial response of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the mass influx of Syrian refugees to Europe due to the war, the reported treatment received by Syrian refugees at the borders of Hungary, and the conditional hospitality demonstrated by European Union (EU) countries to asylum seekers.

Abstract: This article challenges the established convention in immigration policy scholarship of treating economic utility and identity maintenance as logically distinct concerns. Drawing on work by Weber, Wallerstein and Bourdieu, we argue that concerns about economic utility and identity maintenance interact in the immigration policies of Western liberal democratic states, leading to policies designed to build and maintain middle‐class national status groups. Using the example of contemporary immigration policy in Germany, we illustrate how this impulse to build the middle‐class status group affects immigrant inclusion/exclusion in nuanced ways at both the group and individual levels, along class/status, ethnic and gender lines. We conclude by considering the policy implications of growing and shaping populations according to middle‐class ideals, particularly for the statistical monitoring of immigrant populations for integration benchmarking purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees from third countries may enter Germany lawfully and obtain a residence status through several programmes. In addition to its Permanent Resettlement Programme, the Federal Government launched three so-called humanitarian admission programmes for a total of 20,000 refugees from Syria in 2013 and 2014. All Länder except Bavaria launched state-level humanitarian admission programmes for refugees from Syria, most of which aimed at relatives of Syrians and Palestinians from Syria already living in Germany. However, none of these programmes provides its beneficiaries with the same status, the same scope of protection, the same rights and guarantees as refugees recognised in the ordinary asylum procedure. Moreover, the rights and obligations of the various programmes' beneficiaries vary between one and another. This framework is therefore not an ideal model for the development of legal entry regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the organized journey of foreign workers recruited for the labor market in the Federal Republic of Germany between the 1950s and the 1970s. It argues that the actors who planned the migrants' journey to and arrival in Germany oscillated between making generalizations about them and distinguishing between them, and, when dealing with Germany's Nazi past, between cluelessness and caution. Secondly, it demonstrates that the journey was subject to international negotiations and cooperation, that it represented both a business venture and a performance, and that it was shot through with contradictions. In addition, the article points out that the journey was experienced by the travelers in many different ways, despite organizers' efforts to standardize it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuing from the concept of Documentality (Steyerl), this paper proposes to reframe documentary practices in refugee theatre. This is based on the observation that documentary theatre during the 'refugee crisis' in 2015 extensively negotiated the role of documents within bureaucratic performances (Jeffers). Following the notion of the document as a powerful tool of governance, this article revisits Bertolt Brecht's ponderings about the performative ambivalence of the passport and critically discusses Peter Weiss' ideal of an objective and juridical documentary theatre. Finally, it analyses the verbatim play 'Asylum Dialogues' and the documentary performance 'Ultima Ratio' within the framework of Documentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how the movement of migration resistance relates to and is articulated with the emergent movement of volunteers in Germany by revisiting the concept of autonomy of migration. It explores the transformation of the volunteer movement, which helped bring refugees across the border to Germany or Austria, since 2015. It also discusses the German asylum politics in relation to the process of refugee migration in the previous years.

The article examines the notions of refugees and economic migrants that defined the transformation of German migration politics during and after the summer of migration. It analyzes the reorganization of the border regime in Europe after the summer of migration, as well as the efforts by the German government to employ refugees who arrived in 2015 and 2016. It also mentions the potential of integrating refugees and asylum seeks into Germany's labor market to fix skills shortage.

The article discusses the European Court of Justice case "Sahar Fahimian v. Federal Republic of Germany" which deals with the refusal of entry to Iranian student Sahar Fahimian to Germany for pursuing doctoral studies on account of public security concerns. A detailed analysis of the case along with its legal background and the court's judgement, is presented.

The immigration society in Germany is divided: Cultural pragmatists, on the one hand, have long since accepted cultural diversity as a very normal day-to-day experience. Cultural pessimists, on the other hand, are driven by the historically mistaken search for a way back to cultural homogeneity; a situation that has never existed in German history. Virulent defensive attitudes against an Islam which is equated with terroristic Islamism, against refugees and asylum seekers as well as against so-called poverty migrants, especially Roma people from south-east- Europe, are today's connecting themes that keep together all culturalistic, radical racist and right-wing extremistic ideas and movements in Germany and Europe. On top of that, a new and growing anti-Semitism is widespread even among Muslim immigrants. Such defensive attitudes provoked a growing xenophobic aggressiveness among radical groups and were a motivating factor for attacks on accommodations of asylum seekers, mosques, and synagogues. In this context even more dangerous than populist attitudes of politicians is their tacit consent with hate speeches about immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and socalled poverty migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration politics--the networks of policies, institutions, discourses, and initiatives to facilitate the incorporation of immigrants--is not a single discourse or policy, but rather an apparatus of governmentality with great scale and scope. An integrative apparatus is pervasive and affects all national subjects. Analysis of the debates about the 2016 integration law shows that an integrative apparatus is not new, but that various elements of an integrative apparatus emerged in the context of guest worker migration. This apparatus is built upon a racialized hierarchy of subjects and expends significant energy to hide the development of a racialized underclass in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the demographic and occupational selectivity of German immigration to South America (primarily Argentina and Brazil) and Australia, compared to Germans bound for the United States, and the geographic and occupational niches they occupied at various destinations. It draws upon both individual-level and aggregate data from censuses and migration records on three continents to examine occupational profiles, urbanization rates, sex ratios, age structure, and age heaping as a rough measure of “quality,” among German immigrants to these destinations, concluding that immigration to the United States tended to be the least selective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

German migration to Guatemala was closely tied to the rise of coffee capitalism. Yet German migrants also built businesses, established families, founded schools, interacted with other Guatemalans, and produced a great deal of local knowledge that fed German, Guatemalan, and international science. That knowledge also shaped businesses, helped transform Guatemalan landscapes, and affected children's worldviews. This essay highlights those contributions and underscores the interconnections between the fates of migrants and the knowledge they produced. It also engages current debates about German migrants, who have become ciphers for the best and worst aspects of Guatemalan modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a macrostructure, this article uses abureaucratic politicsframework to understand the preference formation of the German federal government on liberalising economic migration policies. This allows unpacking the process of preference formation and linking it to a number of causal factors, which, by influencing the costs and benefits distribution of the relevant actors, shape the position of the government. The article argues that themisfitbetween the existing national regulations for economic migration and European-level policies has to be zero – otherwise the economic and political adaptation costs for the actors involved are too high. A heated national debate on immigration is negatively related to governmental support for such measures, as the political costs of support skyrocket. Conversely, if the decision-making process happens bureaucratically, this helps to attain governmental support, as the political costs of doing so are kept minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the challenge of eliminating prejudice against immigrants and refugees from war-torn Syria and other Middle Eastern countries who arrived in Germany in 2015. It cites several challenging issues confronting the German government including the amount of social support to be provided to refugees and the ability of refugees to embrace German social norms. It also discusses the important role of media in fighting bias against refugees.

Already at the beginning of the fifties on the initiative of Italy, negotiations began between the Italian and German governments for the recruitment of migrant-workers, which ended in 1955 with a bilateral agreement between the two countries. Through this recruitment policy and because of the labour-market (Industry and Building) the Italian migration was composed prevalently of men. Female immigration happened in the setting of family reunification and less as an independent movement project. After years of stagnation of italian emigration in the eighties it may also be noted that, since the early nineties, there has been a revival of immigration to Germany. This and modernisation processes in Italy changed the gender composition of the Italian immigration flow to Germany: the distance between male and female immigration is decreasing. A peculiarity of the Italians in Germany is the low occupational participation of women in comparison with other women from EU countries. However, we could observe regional differences, which depend on the migration typologies and the dominating economic structure in the areas. The paper will analyse this different aspects (immigration-processes, migrant-typologies and labour-market participation) by female Italian migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the matter of death at the EU external border and provides some explanation for this phenomenon. From a historical policy perspective it will provide evidence and discussions of why and how the 'shame of Europe' has emerged. It traces back how the policy regime was established and why it prevails. A discourse analysis of policy developments in migration control will be used to look at two of the major players of the EU migration control apparatus: Germany and the United Kingdom. A deconstruction of the control regimes of irregular migration taking shape between 1973 and 1999 has generated evidence for three hegemonic shifts that contributed to the shame of Europe: (1) a conceptual shift that demonized irregular migrants and relabelled them to enemies; (2) logics of urgency/necessity/speed; and (3) securitization and normalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies how different types of tolerance and perceived threat affect opinions about the EU immigration policy in Germany and the Netherlands. We assess to what extent social and political tolerance for and sociotropic and personal threats from Muslim immigrants influence EU citizens’ beliefs that immigration is one of the most important issues facing the EU. By experimentally manipulating religion of immigrant, level of perceived threat, and type of tolerance, we examine how people’s attitudes on immigration policies change. Our findings shed light on how EU countries might deal with the rising tide of intolerance toward immigrants and Muslims, and how better policies of integration could be implemented in a multicultural Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a selection of results from a sample questionnaire survey of Bulgarian citizens travelling by busses from Bulgaria to Germany in May 2012. Two main segments are delineated - Bulgarians that are permanently or temporary residing in this country. Their socio-demographic profiles are explored separately and in comparative perspective, including their actual and expected realization on the labour market abroad. The migration intentions of both segments are identified in the context of the current debate regarding the EU-2 (Bulgarian and Romanian) migration flows to Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of NORDEUROPAforum is the property of NORDEUROPAforum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)