| Germany |
• History of Immigration
• School Info
• Video Footage
• Researchers
| History of Immigration |
Talking about im/migrants in Germany is mostly talking about people without German citizenship. Approximately 9% of a total population of 82 million people in Germany are Ausländer (foreigners), with considerable variation between the percentage of foreigners in the former West (15%) and the former East (2 %). There is a concentration in urban centers such as Frankfurt (30%), Stuttgart (24%), and Munich (24%) and fewer foreigners in rural areas.
Foreigners in Germany are mainly children and grandchildren of the Gastarbeiter (guest workers) who were actively recruited by the government during the 1960s and 1970s to meet labor needs. About 30% of the foreigners are Turkish, 10 % from the former Yugoslavia, 25% from states of the European Union, and about 20 % are refugees and asylum seekers. In recent years, immigration rates to Germany have been the highest within Europe. Between 1991 and 2000 about 10 million people immigrated to Germany, compared to 3.4 million to the U.K,; 1.2 million to France; and 1.5 million to Italy). Relative to the total population, only Luxemburg and Switzerland had a higher immigration rate than Germany.
Another category of im/migrants to Germany includes people of German origin who have moved back to Germany after living for decades in Poland and the Soviet Union. Between 1990 and 2002 more than 2 million Spätaussiedler immigrated to Germany. Since 1993, annual permits have been restricted to 100.000. The legal status of Spätaussiedler is better than Ausländer, as Spätaussiedler are German citizens. But there is considerable discrimination and social marginalization of these “foreign Germans” in housing and employment.
About 20% of Ausländer were born in Germany, 85% of the children under six years of age. Only since 2000 are children born in Germany of non-German parents automatically German citizens. Before, under the German concept of the nation state, which was based on the principle of descent (jus sanguinis) and not on the principle of territory (jus soli), it was difficult to become a German citizen, even for children of non-citizens who were born in Germany.
Only recently have the terms “immigrant” and “immigration” replaced the term “Ausländer” in official discourse. In 2002 the former Federal Government’s “Commissioner for Foreigners´ Issues” became “Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration.” Politically this indicates a paradigm shift from Ausländerpolitik (“foreigners´ policies”) to Einwanderungspolitik (“immigration policies”). During sixteen years of Kohl´s Christian Democratic Government the fact of Germany being a country of immigration was consistently denied. Immigration was restricted by law; the “aliens´ law” restricted residence and rights for im/migrants, and im/migrants were under great pressure to assimilate. Today the social exclusion and marginalization of im/migrants is considered a result of these failed policies. One indicator is the poor performance of children of im/migrants in the education system. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) showed that reading abilities in Germany, which are poor in general, are extremely poor among im/migrant pupils. Children of im/migrants are underrepresented in higher education levels and overrepresented in lower secondary and special schools. 18% of im/migrants leave school without certificates. Many of them cannot find employment. While the unemployment rate in Germany is about 10%, it is about 20% among im/migrants. Popular discussion of this data reflects little insight into the mechanisms of institutionalized discrimination. Public discourse is characterized by accusations addressed to im/migrant families.
The lack of a clear program to deal with immigration, resulting from the fact that immigration to Germany has been politically denied since the 1960s, leaves immigration an unsolved social problem and a site of political struggle. An attempt by the Social Democrat/Green government to pass an immigration law failed in 2002 because it was not supported by the Christian Democrats that run the governments of the federal states. But meanwhile all major parties agree that “integration” requires not just an effort by the im/migrants but also policies to support im/migrants becoming citizens.
| School Info |
Coming soon...
| Researchers |
.....Christa
Preissing, preissing@ina-fu.org
.....Henrietta Heimgaertner, heimgaertner@ina-fu.org
.....Annika Sulzer, Annika.Sulzer@asu.edu
.....
Joseph
Tobin, PR Director, Joseph.Tobin@asu.edu
Fikriye Kurban Coordinator, Fikriye.Kurban@asu.edu
Henriette
Heimgaertner
heimgaertner@ina-fu.org
Henriette Heimgaertner studied Political Science, History, Geography, Pedagogy and Development Studies in Germany, The Netherlands and the USA. After various teaching appointments in Germany, Italy and Ghana she joined the Bernard van Leer Foundation in The Netherlands for 16 years with responsibility for programme development, monitoring and evaluation. Her country portfolio included Ireland, France Portugal, Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Morocco and Germany. She serves as a Board member for the International Step by Step Association, a network of Early Childhood Associations in Eastern & Central Europe as well as Central Asia. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Bertelsmann Foundation's national early years' programme in Germany. Recently, she joined the Institute for Contextual Child Development at the International Academy linked to the Free University, Berlin. There she is responsible for programme development, fundraising and capacity building.
Christa
Pressing
preissing@ina-fu.org
Co-Director of the
Children Crossing Borders project in Germany, PhD. in sociology,
1996 Co-founder of INA gGmbH. Since then, director at the “Institut
für den Situationsansatz” (ISTA). 1998 – 2004 Assistant
Professor at the Free University of Berlin, Institute for Intercultural
Education. Member of the European Network DECET – Diversity in Early
Childhood Education and Training. Recent work includes:
Qualität im Situationsansatz (“Quality in the Contextual Approach”)
– Part of the National Quality Initiative within the system of children’s
daycare centers and kindergardens; Kinderwelten (“Children’s
Worlds”) – Intercultural and anti-bias-work in Early Childhood,
in cooperation with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the municipality
of Berlin-Kreuzberg. Demokratie in Kindergarten und Grundschule (“Democracy
in kindergarten and primary school”) – elementary experiences
in democracy within the children’s community and in the relationship
between children and educators or teachers, in cooperation with the municipality
of Eberswalde (Brandenburg) and the Bernard van Leer Foundation; Qualität
von Anfang an (“Quality right from the Start”) Quality development
and assessment in all preschools of a large industrial region [Ludwigshafen]
in Germany. Her main research interests are mechanisms of promoting diversity
and prevention of discrimination in Early Childhood, with the explicit
focus on children’s rights and societal analysis of the role of
parents in Early Childhood settings.
Recent publications include Das Bildungsprogramm für die Berliner
Kindertageseinrichtungen (Curriculum for Early Childhood Education in
Berlin; 2003); Bildungsprogramm für Saarländische Kindergärten
(Curriculum for ECE in Saarland, 2003-2004); Bildungsempfehlungen für
die Kindertageseinrichtungen in Hamburg (Curriculum for ECEC in Hamburg,
2004-2005); Bridging Diversity – An Early Childhood Curriculum.
(in English). Based on the Curriuclum for Early Childhood Education in
Berlin. In cooperation with Roger Prott and the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Annika
Sulzer
Annika.Sulzer@asu.edu
Research
coordinator for the German Team. M.A in intercultural education and migration
studies. Her research interests concern post-colonial theories of racism,
deconstructions of ‘white’ privilege and cultural dominance
(Critical Whiteness Studies) as of ethnic and social othering processes,
with the explicit focus on analysis of institutional mechanisms of diversity
and discrimination in Early Childhood settings in postmodern societies.
With this, she contributes to the research team with analysis that investigate
the discursive construction of the immigrant child, the symbolic function
of language(s) in othering processes of discourses on integration and
segregation and the articulation of societal discourses of immigration
by professionals in the field of Early Childhood in Germany.
Recent publications:
Rassismus und Rassismusprävention in Kindertagesstätten“.
[racism and the prevention of racism in Early Childhood Care Settings]
(together with Petra Wagner) In: Scharatow, Wiebke/Leiprecht, Rudolf (ed.):
Rassismus und politische Bildungsarbeit. [Racism and political education]
(coming up); „Rassismusprävention und interkulturelles Lernen
von Anfang an?“ [Prevention of racism and intercultural learning
right from the start?] (together Rudolf Leiprecht) In: Gereke, Iris (ed.).
: Bildung und Lernen der Drei- bis Achtjährigen. [‚Bildung’
and learning of three to eight year olds.] Kohlhardt Verlag (2007)
Anja
Jungen
anjadamaskus@gmx.de
M.A. Social work; M.A. (appl) in Anthropology, Islamic Studies and education (Free University of Berlin). Her research interests concern religious diversity and processes of othering and belonging in postmodern societies in the field of education. With her long-year experience in social work with migrants in Germany she contributes to the research team as an assistant.
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