Abstract
This chapter contextualizes the German case, gives a brief history of the German immigration experience in the second half of the twentieth century, and provides a descriptive account on the extent to which immigrants in Germany engage in transnational activities.
The descriptive analyses reveal that the majority of first generation immigrants maintains ties with its country of origin, but the extent depends on the type of activity considered. Regular visits to the country of origin are common, most of them, however, do not exceed periods of 1–3 months and there is no intergenerational decline in visiting. Second generation immigrants visit their (parents’) country of origin as often as first generation immigrants do. Sending remittances, on the other hand, is much less common among first generation immigrants in Germany and is rare among the second generation.
Further descriptive analyses show substantial differences with regard to immigrants’ countries of origins. Those groups which appear most disadvantaged, e.g. immigrants of Turkish descent, are also transnationally most active.
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Notes
- 1.
Source: http://factfinder2.census.gov (09.26.2013).
- 2.
We should note that the stream of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the former USSR increased already in the 1980s (for a detailed discussion, see Herbert (2003)).
- 3.
- 4.
This is due to the increasing number of German emigrants. Net migration for non-German citizens is still slightly positive in 2008 (10,685) (BAMF 2010, p. 13).
- 5.
But the data may not be well suited to examine this particular question, as the respondents are asked if they have been to their country of origin in the last 2 years and, if so, for how long. This might result in an underestimation of the incidence of visits, because if several trips have been undertaken only the longest is reported.
- 6.
One might argue that the intention to stay in Germany might be conflated with other aspects than those regarding belonging and emotional attachment. Although this is certainly a valid critique, I would argue that potentially vague return intentions indeed say a lot about feelings of belonging.
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Schunck, R. (2014). Transnational Activities and Immigrant Integration in Germany. In: Transnational Activities and Immigrant Integration in Germany. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03928-2_6
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