Germany – Growing more open to immigrants?

Studies show that increasing numbers of highly skilled immigrants are coming to Germany. They face a number of hurdles, but there are positive signs in the country’s changing attitudes toward them.

“So, how’d you learn to speak German so well?” – It’s a question journalist and TV moderator Elif Senel hears all the time, despite being born in Germany.

“However,” she said, “I’ve noticed a difference between generations: Only older people ask that because for younger Germans, it’s totally normal that someone with a non-German sounding name is still German.”

Senel’s parents moved to Germany from the Turkish region of Anatolia in the 1970s, and her father was among the so-called guest workers who were recruited for manual labor beginning in the 1950s.

After German reunification, many members of German minority groups who lived abroad sought repatriation in Germany. And in the first decade of the 21st century, many highly qualified immigrants have entered Germany: in 2009, 21 percent of the newcomers had a highly specialized skill set and job, according to a study by the Cologne-based Institute for Economic Research.

“Since increasing numbers of highly-qualified people are coming to Germany, the image of the educated immigrant is beginning to overshadow the picture of the unskilled laborer,” said immigration expert Klaus Bade, who led the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration (SVR) until July 1…

via Is Germany growing more open to immigrants? | Germany | DW.DE | 15.10.2012.