Rainer Münz

European East-West migration, 1945-1992

This articles thesis is that Europe is undergoing an international but intracontinental migration such as it has not seen since the beginning of the Cold War. The authors cite several reasons for the recent outburst of migration: ethnic relocation, the search for refuge and asylum, and the need for work. They also present a country-by-country description of sending and receiving nations. The push and pull factors causing such massive migration cannot only be contained by the present methods of having each government erect legislative and other barriers – such as armed border guards – against newcomers.

The Ethnic and Demographic Structure of Foreigners and Immigrants in Germany

Who are Germany’s immigrants? This would appear to be a simple question. But there is no simple answer, since the main criterion used by the German administration and reflected in the available statistical information is citizenship, not place of birth. This has to do with the fact that Germany has not viewed itself as an immigration country. Both the political and administrative apparatuses in Germany use the criterion of nationality as a point of orientation. This same criterion of citizenship is used in official statistics. The National Statistical Yearbook and similar state publications provide information about the German and foreign populations in Germany according to age, sex, marital status, birth rate, and so on. But no information can be found about place or country of birth for either Germans or non-Germans. Using nationality as a central defining criterion increases the tendency to see non-Germans regardless of their place of birth as the “true immi-grants,” whereas ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe (Aussiedler) are not readily identified as such. Another reason for this is that most Germans view themselves as members of an ethnic nation defined by descent, rather than as members of a republican nation state.

Immigration to Europe and its Consequences for the Host Societies

Western Europe has a long tradition of sending emigrants overseas. For most European countries, however, receiving and integrating foreigners is a relatively new phenomenon that first started to occur in the 1940s and 1950s. In the years following World War II, Western European societies had to absorb refugees, displaced persons, and people returning from former colonies. But by the 1950s and 1960s, countries such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland already met part of their growing demand for labour by recruiting migrants from several Mediterranean countries: First from Italy, Spain and Portugal, then from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and finally from Yugoslavia and Turkey. Great Britain remained the main destination for migrants from Ireland and from other Commonwealth countries. In the majority of cases (at least in continental Europe) the recruitment of foreign labour took place on the basis of bilateral agreements between the governments of sending and receiving countries (Hollifield 1992).

Globalisierung, Migration und Bevölkerung — Handlungsoptionen für Deutschland

In der offentlichen Wahrnehmung werden internationale Wanderung und Globalisierung oft in einem Atemzug genannt und als Teil einer von ausen kommenden Bedrohung gesehen. Sie werden fur eine Reihe von Defiziten unserer Gesellschaft verantwortlich gemacht und losen Zukunftsangste aus.

Interpretation in Konkurrenz mit Medien und Politik

Der Demograph RAINER MUNZ sucht die Themen, die seinen Wissenschaftszweig mit aktueller Relevanz aufladen. Er findet sie in der politischen Entwicklung in Europa, unter anderem vor seiner Haustur in Berlin, und pladiert fur Substanz statt Formalem.