The Social Integration of Germany since Unification

Abstract

Germans are inordinately preoccupied with the question of national integration. From the Kulturkampf to the Weimar Republic to the separation of East and West, social fractiousness is deeply ingrained in German history, giving rise to a desire to unify the "incomplete nation." Yet, the impulse to integrate German society has long been ambivalent. Between Bismarck and the Nazi interregnum, top-down efforts to force Germans to integrate threatened to erase valued differences. The twentieth anniversary of German reunification is the occasion to assess the reality of and ambivalence towards social integration in contemporary Germany. A review of economic and social measures of East-West, immigrant, and Muslim integration provides many indications of progress. Nevertheless, social cleavages persist despite political integration. Indeed, in some aspects, including in the party system, fragmentation is greater now than it was two decades ago. Yet successful social integration is a two-way street, requiring newcomers and oldtimers to interact. Integration of the European Union to some extent has followed this German path, with subsidiarity ensuring a decentralized social model and limited cohesion. German ambivalence about social integration is a major reason for the continuing social fragmentation of the society.

An Alternative Narrative of Integration In Germany through an Ethnographic Exploration of Cuban Immigration

“…Germany has been traditionally a country of emigration that has transformed into one of immigration in the last half of the 20 th century (Kurthen, 1995). Germany was also slow in admitting its new role as a country of immigration (Seifert, 1997;Avci, 2006;Castles, 2006;Green, 2007;Boswell & Hough, 2008;Silver, 2010;Williams, 2014;Çelik, 2015;Immerfall, 2017), which is why the notion of integration was all but ignored (Anil, 2005;Avci, 2006). As Germany's immigrant population began to grow at an accelerated rate after the 1960s, integration became an issue the government could no longer afford to ignore.…”

“…As Silver (2010) argued, Germany is now tasked with the undertaking of integration while simultaneously discounting issues of race, exclusion, and nationhood for fear of invoking its infamous past. Further causing ambiguity in its integration endeavors is that integration discourse is based primarily on its majority immigrant group.…”

“…Part of this hesitation to create integration policies was that the German government refused to see itself as a country of immigrants (Brubaker, 1992;Auernheimer, 2005;Avci, 2006;Green, 2007;Boswell & Hough, 2008;Silver, 2010;Williams, 2014;Çelik, 2015;Immerfall, 2017; see also Kurthen, 1995). Before the 1990s, Germany had not engaged with any form of integration strategy (Anil, 2005, p. 453;Avci, 2006, p. 69), except for educational policies involving the children of foreigners 10 (Faas, 2008, p. 109).…”

“…Integration into the GDR brought its challenges, but now a double integration into a reunified Germany brought a unique twist to national identity and belonging. The German nation has been subjected to constant ideological chaos since World War I, and with reunification, it was once again thrust into disarray (Silver, 2010). The East and the West of the country, which had created separate national identities, were now suddenly brought together.…”

“…This intragroup conflict stems from cultural and socioeconomic regional differences that are deemed contradictory. For example, East and West Germany, although no longer having a wall as a barrier between the two, still have cultural and social barriers (Silver, 2010;Gruning, 2010; see also Zazilska-Florczuk & Ciechanowicz, 2011).…”