Few politicians have felt that they could openly acknowledge the established reality: Germany is a country of immigrants. In the 1950s and '60s, Italians, Turks, Portuguese and Greeks came to Germany as "guest workers." The description included the explicit expectation that those workers would return to their countries of origin at some point. Instead, they stayed and had children, and their children had children. And yet the broader German society never fully accepted many of them — in part because few political leaders ever gave a clear signal that these people were a part of the country and, therefore, welcome to stay.
That culture war continues. The nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken on the role of the xenophobe, with established political parties lining up to various degrees against it. Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats (CDU) deserve much credit for acknowledging the role of international workers in Germany. Merkel has long expressed her conviction that the country cannot maintain its prosperity without bringing in more labor from abroad.
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When members of the globally mobile labor force are asked which leading industrial nation they would like to move to, however, Germany — the European Union's strongest economy — ranks somewhere in the middle. The bureaucracy is unnecessarily tedious in Germany, the pay is better elsewhere, and the country doesn't feel all that welcoming. Reports of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic violence serve as a strong deterrent for potential immigrants.
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As large numbers of displaced people arrived in 2015 and 2016, German politicians created more restrictive asylum policy. But refugees, too, have helped fill vacant positions. Over the past four years, almost half a million people who received some form of asylum protection have found jobs in Germany. In the near future, many Britons, shocked by their country's exit from the European Union, will likely want to come, as well — and many will remain long after they arrive. That will make Germany considerably more diverse.
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It seems that the majority of people in Germany have finally been persuaded by the indisputable facts — whatever the AfD and its ilk may say.
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