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Event Recap: “Current Immigration and Integration Debates in Germany and the United States: What We Can Learn From Each Other”

Transatlantic Global Agenda

Spencer Boyer, “Current Immigration and Integration Debates in Germany and the United States: What We Can Learn From Each Other”

March 5^th 2014, 12-2 pm, Alston + Bird LLP, New York, NY

 

On March 5^th, Spencer Boyer, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations and a Visiting Scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University spoke on current immigration and integration debates in Germany and the United States, highlighting what both countries could learn from each other in dealing with the issue. Even though they have different historical perspectives on the matter, Boyer observed that the current debate in both countries centers on citizenship and the talent gap in the workforce.

In Boyer’s opinion, inclusion is critical to a successful immigration policy, but both Germany and the United States currently struggle with managing diverse populations and establishing a welcoming environment to immigrants. Today the anti-immigrant rhetoric in Europe is being framed by the far right in terms of defending cultural and domestic traditions, making policy that limits immigration a more attractive concept to voters. Proclamations of failed multiculturalism and threatened cultural identities by center-conservative politicians, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former President Sarkozy of France, may add to the persuasive power and perceived legitimacy of these arguments. Far-right movements, anti-EU and anti-immigration parties are also capitalizing on fears that “foreigners” (so-called even if they’ve lived in the country for years or even their entire lives) will take advantage of the state welfare systems, using national identity as rhetoric to reinforce these concepts and leading a movement for exclusion rather than inclusion.

According to Boyer, the ongoing immigration reform debate in the US is largely being shaped by how the increase of minority populations will affect the political landscape. In some states, a rise in conservative voters has been attributed to increasing fears of “American jobs being taken away” by foreigners. Similar to this line of thought, the main federal focus the past few years has been on border security, with the US spending more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. After years of following this policy of ‘enforcement first’, though, support for immigration reform is growing in the US, especially regarding the legalization of undocumented immigrants.

The historical perspectives in the United States and Germany on immigration are very different, Boyer said, but valuable lessons could still be learned by examining how the two countries have dealt with immigration and integration issues in the past.

In 1955, Germany created the first “Agreement on the Recruitment and Placement of Workers” with Italy in order to meet the employment needs of the post-war ‘Wirtschaftswunder’. Similar agreements followed with Greece, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia, and Yugoslavia. The underlying assumption of these agreements was that the workers would move to Germany only temporarily, rendering the development of a social and economic support infrastructure unnecessary. As a result, integration models for the migrants were never developed or even seriously debated until decades later. The political events of the 1990s saw a new rise in immigration numbers, largely due to the reunification of East and West Germany, but also impacted by regional conflicts in and around Europe.

In the late 90s, however, citizenship emerged as a major topic and the coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Green Party succeeded in permitting citizenship to children of foreigners born in Germany, whereas previously citizenship could only be acquired if one was born to a German parent. Boyer pointed out that this revised citizenship law, which came into effect in 1999, was widely perceived as a gesture to the Turkish community. In an effort to further formalize the path to citizenship, mandatory courses on German language, history, and culture have since been developed in the hope of facilitating the integration of immigrants into German society.

While Germany still struggles with its identity in terms of immigration, the core of American cultural identity was always based on immigration. Boyer cited statistics projecting that Caucasians will no longer be the majority by 2042 and that up to 20% of Americans may identify as multi-racial by 2050. The US perceives itself to be fairly successful in managing this diversity, which may be the reason why the current immigration debate focuses largely on the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the country, rather than the integration debate seen in Germany and other European countries.

The White House has proposed key principles to handle the American situation that address different aspects of immigration to the US. The first is to maintain the approach of ‘enforcement first’, continuing to strengthen border security, in addition to cracking down on employers who employ illegal immigrants. Further, the Obama administration strives to smooth the path to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants by granting them the possibility to acquire citizenship faster, for example through serving in the military or pursuing higher education. Finally they seek to address the talent gap by streamlining the immigration process for those who are in the United States on work visas, especially in the STEM fields.

So what are the lessons to be learned from the different developments of policies and attitudes toward immigration in Germany and the US, past and present?

The framework of citizenship, according to Boyer, impacts the general framework of integration. However, while Germany’s new citizenship law now allows children of foreigners to be eligible for citizenship, this is only on the condition that they choose between nationalities once they reach the age of 23. Boyer emphasized that to many this resembles a choice between two equally poor options if they choose to stay in Germany: either become a ‘second class citizen’ of Germany, or be treated as a foreigner in the country you call home. Germany’s hesitance to allow dual citizenship has long been based on the notion that being a national of two different countries may lead to conflicting cultural identities.

In Boyer’s opinion, Germany could learn from the United States’ treatment of dual citizenship. Even though some may also fear an endangerment of American cultural identity, dual citizenship is fairly common in the US. The debate of multiple cultural identities has largely been put to rest, not least by electing a president with a bi-racial background, confirming diversity as a legitimate part of the American experience. Boyer suggested that dual citizenship should be made available to everyone, especially since individuals holding citizenship to two EU member states are not required to choose and don’t appear to be facing the feared conflict of identity. He believes that dual citizenship is a key tool to further integration in both the United States and Germany. In the 2013 federal elections in Germany, the SDP campaigned to grant permanent dual citizenship to children who were born to foreign parents after 1990, and succeeded in including this in the coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). While still not unconditional, it is a step forward.

In Germany, the need to attract skilled immigrants is great. Boyer pointed out that while Germany has the lowest barriers for high-skilled workers in the EU, long-term migration forecasts for Germany are low. Compared to the United States, the immigration system for high-skilled individuals is fairly open, although German employers still rarely recruit outside of Germany. A strong reason for this is the language barrier, but Germany is trying to counteract this by offering alternative incentives and support for newcomers. They have created websites and helpdesk services, simplified the recognition process of foreign credentials, and began incentivizing businesses. The United States faces its own challenges with the skill gap. Boyer believes there needs to be a national discussion between federal policies towards skilled immigration, and the sectors within the US economy that need support. Part of the solution there will also include recognizing foreign credentials, as well as restructuring the work visa system.

In his closing statement, Boyer doubted that there would be any further progress on immigration reform in the United States before the Midterm elections of 2014. Nevertheless, he recommended that the US focus on citizenship for illegal immigrants in connection with education. While the issue of education was also crucial to integration in Germany (he explicitly warned against tracking minorities into the ‘Hauptschulen’), Boyer emphasized that German leadership ought to concentrate on explaining to its population why creating a welcoming culture towards immigrants was important, especially within the larger context of Europe. In his opinion, developing such an environment and communicating its necessity is crucial to attracting and keeping talent, which he believes is the only way to ensure that the long term economic needs of both Germany and the United States are met.

 

The Transatlantic Global Agenda

A broad range of issues impact both Germany and the United States of America. The Transatlantic Global Agenda, a discussion series hosted jointly by American Friends of Bucerius and the American Council on Germany and supported by Alston & Bird LLP, acknowledges this by giving leaders in the field of foreign policy the opportunity to exchange ideas and effectively share expertise.