Case Study : Germany
In this case study, we will be looking at immigration in West Germany from the 1950s to 2010. Germany is the country with the most number of immigrants in Europe, and second in the world to the United States. This demographic of a high number of immigrants dates back to the 1950s to 2010. It is the country with the world’s lowest birth rate of 8.2 children per 1000 people, meaning that the percentage of people of working age in the country would drop from 61% to 54% by 2030 (The Guardian, 2015). Germany faces a severe problem of brain drain, which is when those who are educated in tertiary education emigrate from the country, with about 6000 of these people leaving Germany (Eurostat, 2015). As a result, labour costs will increase further, and economic growth may be slowed.
|
|
Thus, there is a need for a big influx of young and capable legal immigrant workers to fill in the skills gap, and strengthen the workforce in numbers. In the 1950s, there was a large influx of economic transient workers, which are people who work or stay at a place for only a short period of time (Merriam-Webster, 2016). They were introduced into Germany through the signing of labour agreements with nearby countries such as Turkey. This was due to the Wirtschaftswunder (economic wonder), and hence immigrants were needed to build a larger and stronger workforce in order to sustain greater economic growth of the country during this boom.
However, there is a cost to the government in order to accept immigrants into the country. The German government has put in place policies to ensure the welfare of the immigrants are accounted for, ensuring that they are also included in the country and thus not deprived of opportunities, and access to facilities and infrastructure. The German government provides economic migrants benefits based on a contributions-based system up to 2016, where only those who are working and contributing income tax to the country will receive benefits such as healthcare and education subsidies, and unemployment benefits for when they are temporarily looking for other jobs. These incur costs on the government, and thus taxpayers may be concerned as to whether they are merely benefitting from the taxpayer’s money without contribution.
Nevertheless, these contributions of these immigrants have proven to be outweigh the costs of the government. The low-skilled and cheap labour from transient-migrant workers lowers costs for companies, enabling industries to expand and grow, raising Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) to one of the highest in the world today (Husna, 2016). Companies benefit as labour costs become cheaper due to an abundance of workers and immigrants being low-skilled. There was already an increase in economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, and that “would not have been possible at the same pace… and that the GDP would have risen far less”. At the same time, this also reduced unemployment in the host country, because employing 1.4 million immigrants resulted in the creation of 90,000 jobs for the locals (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 2005, p.25). The significant economic benefit caused the government to make the decision to renew the work permits of the transient workers, so as to prolong the positive benefits brought by the immigrants and have them continue contributing to the growth of the economy. All these economic contributions from the economic migrants all outweigh the cost of benefits for migrants from the government. This shows that the migrants have been successfully integrated into the workforce and their contributions have demonstrated that they are ultimately beneficial to the host country. |
The open mindedness of the locals is essential in ensuring social cohesion within the country, and therefore encouraging immigrants to be participative in the German society. With the increase of low skilled and young workers in the labour force, Germans are receptive and even happy to continue hiring or working with these legal migrants since they have contributed significantly to their country’s economic growth. They view these immigrants as positive contributors to society, and are thus more open and accepting to these immigrants. This positive mindset also encourages locals and immigrants to forge friendships or partnerships with lesser inhibitions, forming new shared experiences and thus a sense of belonging to Germany in these immigrants. These friendships and partnership between immigrants and locals not only brings about better working relations in the workplace, but also shows the social resilience in the country where the people are united as one, and are formidable and harmonious. This allows immigrants to feel more at ease in the country. Thus, they may become more participative in the German society, or even be involved or concerned about the welfare of the country, regarding Germany as their home that they have the responsibility to improve and protect.
This would also lead to equal opportunities and access to resources and facilities such as education and healthcare, and will give way to companies stepping forward to achieve good growth, selecting the best leaders and workers based on merit alone and regardless of background. At the same time, the diverse mindsets and experiences of the immigrants can value-add ideologies and diversify working styles of companies, creating possibilities of companies becoming even more efficient and productive. This may also give way to new industries in the country, and having a wider variety of industries in the country can make the country’s economy more stable. This diversity will benefit the country’s economy as it brings about even higher economic growth, with a GDP of 46,268.64 USD in 2013. Overall, through the integration of immigrants, it is likely that the country will experience further economic growth.
![Picture](/uploads/5/5/8/7/55875155/2790295.jpg?1461424501)
Reuters (Publisher). (2015). Volunteers play music with migrants and dance in front of the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs where they wait with other migrants to apply for asylum in Berlin, August 10, 2015 [Photograph]. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-and-migrants-the-germans-who-are-welcoming-victims-of-oppression-despite-opposition-of-a-10456450.html.
In the long run, more visible benefits can be seen with successful integration of immigrants in Germany. There will be more people with migration background than actual Germans in the future, with 20% of the German population having immigration background, changing its future demographic makeup (Eurostat, 2015). This means that the whole German cultural scene will be revamped due to the influx of new immigrants, and this will have a lasting effect on the people’s traditions, for example, the country’s growing Muslim population have led to their traditions and festivals being regarded as important as those of the country’s currently predominant Christian population. The Turks in Germany are able to preserve their own culture whilst in Germany, and at the same time, work and live together harmoniously in Germany, with second generation Turkish immigrants forming cultural ties with both their parents’ home countries and the country they reside in. As long as people of different cultures can respect each other’s beliefs and cultures, as achieved via mutual understanding through integration, a new diversified generation of Germans will be sustained. This will be beneficial to the host country as it brings more economic opportunities and increases the economic competitiveness of the country. In this aspect, integration allows for more economic growth, which fulfils Germany’s main purpose for immigration.