Education: Hope for newcomers in Europe
1. Introduction Refugee inflows in recent history The Federal Republic of Germany has always been heavily influenced by migration, both of a permanent and temporary nature.1 Besides labour and family migration, population inflows requiring large-scale emergency housing and shelter occurred in three periods of history: • After World War II, around 12 million Germans fled from former German territories. • After the breakdown of communist states, around 1.6 million ethnic Germans and 1.4 million asylum seekers sought protection in the peak years 1988 to 19932 alone, mainly from Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. • In 2015, more than 890,000 persons sought protection in Germany, mainly from Syria and Western Balkan states – up from around 20,000 in 2008. In the first half of 2017, around 90,000 new asylum seekers were registered.3 Despite high levels of immigration, government policies did not consider Germany a country of immigration until the new residence law that came into force in 2005.4 Since then, immigration is no longer treated legally as exception. Immigration of (highly) skilled people is officially encouraged, and the need to assist integration is accepted. However, the public response to immigration has been divided. A welcoming culture with strong voluntary engagement can be observed on the one hand, alongside new movements with strong antiimmigrant sentiments (Rietig and Müller, 2016). These sentiments are particularly directed at and felt by Muslims (SVR, 2016). An analysis of media representation of immigrants in 2015 showed that dominant patterns changed in waves, beginning with stereotypical presentations of masses of people en route to Germany, a growing empathy with many stories emphasising the situation of children and, finally, an emphasis on criminality by refugees (Hemmelmann and Wegner, 2016). 1 For a more detailed country profile see Hanewinkel and Oltmer (2015). 2 Own calculation based on: Bundesverwaltungsamt (2017), BAMF (2016). 3 All numbers for 2015 and 2016 must be interpreted with care, as the asylum system did not cope with the influx (SVR 2017b). 4 Gesetz über den Aufenthalt, die Erwerbstätigkeit und die Integration von Ausländern im Bundesgebiet (Aufenthaltsgesetz): http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/aufenthg_2004/ Accessed 20 October 2017.
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