Continuity and change in Germany's treatment of non-Germans
O'brien, P.
International Migration Review 22(3): 109-134
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0197-9183 PMID: 12281727 DOI: 10.2307/2546587Document Number: 358774
This essay criticizes 2 conventional approaches to migrants in Germany. 1 focuses on racism in German history while the 2nd examines the tradition of repressive laws which exploit and dominate foreigners. This essay finds these approaches appropriate until the 1970s. From that point, German governments tend to accept foreigners and develop new programs of integration. The essay concludes with ways future research can uncover new and subtle forms of control and domination; the goal of integration itself may become a form of control. Future research can investigate 1) the extent to which integration is rhetorical rather than substantial, 2) the extent to which policies create restrictive forms of integration, and 3) how integration forces migrants to make choices they might not choose to make, such as the choice forced by the current debate over which group of Moslems should rule Islam in Germany.