Immigration politics

Introduction

Immigration refers to the movement of people between countries. While the movement of people has existed throughout human history at various levels, modern immigration implies long-term, legal, permanent residence. Short-term visitors and tourists are considered non-immigrants. Immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country is termed illegal immigration. Under this definition, an illegal immigrant is a foreigner who either illegally crossed an international political border, be it by land, water, or air, or a foreigner who legally entered a country but nevertheless overstays his/her visa in order to live and/or work therein. Seasonal labour migration, while generally non-permanent in nature (typically for periods of less than a year), is often treated as a form of immigration.

The modern concept of immigration is related to the development of nation-states and nationality law. Citizenship in a nation-state confers an inalienable right of residence in that state, but residency of non-citizens is subject to conditions set by immigration law. The emergence of nation-states made immigration a political issue: by definition it is the homeland of a nation defined by shared ethnicity and/or culture.

The global volume of immigration is high in absolute terms, but low in relative terms. The International Integration and Refugee Association estimated 190 million international migrants in 2005, about 3 percent of global population. The other 97 percent still live in the country in which they were born. The Middle East, some parts of Europe, small areas of South East Asia, and a few spots in the West Indies have the highest numbers of immigration population recorded by the UN Census 2005.

Politics of Immigration in Germany

There has been a large influx of foreign workers and their families into European countries since the 1960s. In 1955 the first immigrant treaty signed between the former West Germany and Italy marked the initiation of formation of immigrant communities in Germany. Other bilateral agreements with Greece, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal and Yugoslavia followed in the 1960s. The immigrant guest workers were by and large unskilled blue-collar workers who were expected to alleviate Germany's labour shortages in the times of economic upturn. After these immigration channels were discontinued following the 1973 oil shock, migration continued, but in general only through family reunification, increased fertility rates, and asylum seekers and refugees. As of 2004 Germany's total foreign born population was 6.7 million, of which there were 2.1 million immigrants from other European Union members and 3.2 from the rest of Europe.1 After German policy makers fully realized that Germany has turned into an immigration country, the new German naturalization law effective as of 2000 added the jus soli principle to the former “Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht” that until then only granted citizenship on the ius sanguinis basis to children born to a German parent. Since then ascension to citizenship has been an administratively complicated but possible venture for foreigners. The migration trend in countries like Germany has raised interest in the overall macro effects of immigration in host countries. More recently, focus has shifted to more micro issues such as integration and assimilation of foreigners into host ...