Deutschland ist doch ein Einwanderungsland geworden: proposals to address Germany's status as a "land of immigration."

• Author: Seibel, Anne Marie

1. INTRODUCTION

   Historically, Germany has been a country in search of an identity. Unlike many other nations, Germany has not had a citizen's revolution to define itself as a nation.(1) Its geographical location in the center of Europe has contributed to its repeated search for definite boundaries and a definite role in Europe. Adolf Hitler's attempt to establish Germany and the Aryan Race as the dominant force in Europe resulted in an incomprehensible humanitarian tragedy. After World War II, Germany was a divided nation in economic ruin. It was without sovereignty, and once again, without a national identity.

   Germany continued down a path of contradictions: attempting to regain a role as a sovereign nation, but unable to regain the trust of the world; seeking a national identity, but afraid to raise the ghosts of National Socialism in the process; working toward reunification, but forced by world powers to remain divided; calling on foreigners to replenish the West German work force, but unwilling to view these individuals as immigrants; opening its doors to victims of political persecution, but unable to accommodate them in the legal, political, and social structure.

   West Germany's rebirth after World War II came in the form of the West German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle)(2) in the late 1950s and 1960s. West Germany began fashioning its role as an economic machine in the emerging European Common Market. To power this machine, West Germany invited guestworkers from its poorer Southern European neighbors to fill temporary positions in the industrial force. They were not intended to be immigrants, but rather visitors who would simply help Germany grow before they returned to their respective countries of origin. These "guestworkers," however, stayed and even brought their families. Yet, West Germany refused to identify itself as a land with an increasing immigrant population.(3)

   A further influx of foreigners entered the country in the late 1980s as the Iron Curtain began to fall in Eastern Europe.(4) These asylum seekers fled to Germany with knowledge of its remarkably liberal asylum policy. Under its post-war constitution, the Grundgesetz(5) (hereinafter Basic Law), West Germany welcomed asylum seekers in unlimited numbers as repayment to the world for its willingness to accept asylum seekers fleeing Hitler's regime.(6) After the reunification of Germany in 1990,(7) the pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers and foreigners manifested itself in violent attacks on foreigners. Eventually, domestic and foreign pressure led the German legislature to amend the Basic Law, restricting the number of asylum seekers.

   Additionally, "ethnic Germans" returned to Germany in large numbers. Many of these ethnic Germans' ancestors had emigrated from Germany hundreds of years ago. After the Berlin Wall fell, the ethnic Germans, who had lived in German settlements in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, returned in large numbers. In contrast to the former "guestworkers" and asylum seekers, the law did not consider this population to be foreign at all. In fact, ethnic Germans still enjoy the right to German citizenship, a right denied to the majority of other foreign residents because of restrictive citizenship and naturalization policies.(8)

   Today, Germany is still searching for the proper balance between its native and foreign populations. The questions of who is a German citizen and who should be a German citizen are politically volatile ones. Germany's residents and politicians have been unable to resolve the contradictions that Germany's current citizenship laws create.

   This Note analyzes the current legal framework for German citizenship and alternative proposals for change. Part II discusses the post-war role of foreigners in Germany. Part III describes the current citizenship and naturalization policies in Germany. Part IV highlights the criticisms of the current system and identifies the proposals for change. Part V suggests proposals for German lawmakers to adopt.

2. GUESTWORKERS, ASYLUM SEEKERS, AND ETHNIC GERMANS

   Understanding the composition of the foreign resident population and its members' arrival in Germany is integral to the debate about the population's legal rights. Pure numerical terms provide the first indication of the foreign residents' significance in Germany. Foreigners currently represent more than eight percent of Germany's population.(9) Almost fifty percent of the foreign residents have lived in Germany for more than ten years and twenty-five percent have been foreign residents for twenty-five years.(10) Foreigners' presence is especially pronounced in Germany's major cities, where between fifteen and twenty-five percent of the population consists of foreigners.(11) Moreover, seventy-five percent of the foreigners in Germany five in four German states.(12) Berlin, the capital of reunited Germany, is home to the third largest metropolitan Turkish population in the world.(13) Foreigners from Turkey also compose more than twenty-eight percent of Germany's foreign population.(14) Germany's prominent foreign populations also include former Yugoslavians, Italians, and Greeks.(15) Of Germany's foreign population, twenty-five percent are nationals of other European Union (hereinafter EU) member states.(16) This numerous and diverse population of foreigners represents a significant influence in German society.

   The foreign resident population may be divided into three general categories: (1) non-ethnic Germans, many of whom entered Germany in connection with guestworker recruitment; (2) asylum seekers; and (3) ethnic Germans.(17) Because the law treats each group differently, an overview of the characteristics of each group is necessary.

   1. Guestworkers: Man hat Arbeitskrafte gerufen, und es kommen Menschen(18)

      An overwhelming majority of the foreign resident population came to Germany as participants in the labor market. The original guestworkers entered West Germany in the 1950s when Germany experienced a shortage of labor as a result of World War II.(19) West Germany, like other Western industrialized nations, actively recruited workers, primarily from Mediterranean countries.(20) In 1955, West Germany signed an agreement with Italy to recruit Italian workers. Bilateral agreements with other countries soon followed.(21) The original workers were men between the ages of twenty and forty. They were willing to work long hours and sent money home to their families.(22) The West German government recruited the guestworkers, assuming they would remain in West Germany only as long as the economic situation required.(23) They functioned as an integral part of West Germany's rebirth as an industrialized nation. Contrary to the initial intentions of West German officials, however, guestworkers eventually brought their families tar West Germany, rather than simply sending funds back to their countries of origin. As a result of recruitment and reuniting families, West Germany's foreign population grew from 680,000 in 1960 to 3,000,000 in 1970.(24)

      West Germany ended its official recruitment of guestworkers in 1973 when the international oil crisis and economic recession eliminated the need for supplemental workers.(25) Until the end of the 1970s, West Germany officially encouraged many of the remaining guestworkers to return to their lands of origin.(26) Despite this effort, the number of foreigners in West Germany increased during the years following the termination of the recruitment program. This growth resulted partly from the arrival of more family members from abroad.(27) Moreover, the birth of children to guestworker families increased.(28) These developments created a second generation of foreign residents in Germany, many of whom had never visited their families' lands of origin.(29) Within twenty-five years, the original guestworkers and their families had become a permanent foreign resident population in West Germany. By the late 1980s, only a small percentage of this population had concrete plans to return to their native countries.(30)

      Today, foreign workers constitute between fifteen and twenty percent of the work force in Germany's large cities.(31) The majority of the workers are in common labor positions, that the general German work force shuns.(32) They have language difficulties and poor vocational training, relative to the German labor pool. Thus they are constrained to the lowest paying jobs in the work force.(33) These difficulties are often compounded for second generation foreign workers, who have experienced difficulty finding work in Germany's tightened employment market.(34) Dim prospects for work have decreased the influx of foreign workers, but have not stemmed increasing birth rates or the arrival of family members from abroad. Foreign dependents numbered more than five million in 1993, more than three times the number of foreign dependents in 1973.(35) It is estimated that in Frankfurt nearly fifty percent of all births are to families of foreign workers.(36) As these figures indicate, Germany's citizenship and naturalization laws not only affect recent immigrants, but also a growing population of long-time residents and their families.

      Indications exist that foreign workers want to break through the economic and social class barriers. For example, within the Turkish population, a small upper class that emphasizes education for its children has developed.(37) Despite these efforts, societal barriers remain, hindering significant strides for even the most ambitious of the foreign worker population. The German legislature's first representative of Turldsh origin was once rejected as a tenant because of his ethnic background.(38) Even lifetime foreign residents in Germany hear comments about their surprising ability to speak German--"Sie sprechen aber gut Deutsch."(39) Accordingly, many challenges still exist related to defining the future role of foreign...