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The history of German immigration to the United States

Not long ago, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior predicted that it would welcome 800,000 refugees this year, four times that of last year. In July alone, 83,000 refugees entered Germany. With the influx of refugees, the Ministry of the Interior raised the estimated figure to 6,543,800+0,000. According to the data of German Federal Office for Migration and UNHCR, there are still 250,000 asylum seekers who have not submitted their refugee applications.

Inclusive policies make refugees prefer Germany.

1949 The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany specifically stipulates the rights of refugees: any individual persecuted by politics should have the right to seek asylum? . Therefore, Germany not only refers to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 195 1 like other countries, but also fixes the right to seek asylum as a basic right of foreigners in legal form. With the protection of the law, the supporting institutional arrangements will not be wrong. For refugees, the five-month arduous journey is for that peace of mind. Therefore, after being rejected by other countries, Germany became the first choice for refugees to go north.

Germany's Refugee Application Procedure Law stipulates that applicants for refugee status need to be interviewed by the Federal Office for Migration and UNHCR, asking about the route from their country of origin to Germany and the reasons for seeking asylum, and finally issuing permits according to the interview results. Once the refugee application is approved, the applicant will be granted refugee status and temporary residency. During this period, refugees will be included in the German social security system and enjoy the same treatment as German citizens, including social welfare, child support benefits, social integration subsidies and even language training courses.

A Syrian refugee of 18 years old came to Germany nine months ago and interacted with netizens on the social network reddit to explain why he chose to leave the motherland and seek refuge. I got refugee status two months ago, and now I am questioned by netizens? Did you become a moth in the welfare system after you entered Germany? At that time, the refugee said that after obtaining refugee status in Germany, he would receive a series of assistance from the German government, including language courses, in order to better integrate into society. After receiving the training, refugees will be urged to start looking for jobs. If he can't find a job, the government will also help the refugees find a suitable job. Judging from the content of netizen interaction, despite such problems, most German netizens still welcome Syrians to Germany.

According to German media, the influx of asylum seekers has brought great challenges to German society, and the social welfare system and government budget are also facing billions of euros of extra expenses. However, the arrival of these refugees also provides a solution to the problem of labor shortage in the German economy facing the aging crisis, especially some refugees with professional skills and understanding of English.

Migration tide in German history

Looking back at history, there have been many waves of immigrants in Germany after the war, including refugee crises caused by war and other factors. When it comes to the development track of German society, immigration is an unavoidable problem.

/kloc-Before World War I at the beginning of 0/9th century, the immigration situation in Germany was mainly emigration. During this period, 500 people from Dovander immigrated to the United States. Most immigrants plan to leave their hometown forever, and some even take the soil from their hometown and bury themselves in other places in the future. With the development of economy, immigrants from eastern and southern Europe began to enter Germany, which supplemented the shortage of labor. After World War II, the demand for labor made Germany change from an immigrant country to an immigrant country.

After World War II, West Germany hosted many war refugees from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe, and even many East Germans. In West Germany, which advocates freedom and opening to the outside world, it is considered as the natural right of refugees to absorb these refugees.

With the development of post-war reconstruction, some western European countries, including Germany, are facing the problem of extreme labor shortage, and have set up specialized institutions to introduce foreign workers. In view of the fact that East Germans were forbidden to enter West Germany at that time, West Germany began to recruit foreign workers from Turkey, Italy, Spain and Greece. According to statistics, the number of foreign workers who entered West Germany in 1950s and 1960s was about150,000.

Since the mid-1980s, a large number of asylum seekers began to enter Germany. In the four years after 1986, about 380,000 people sought asylum in West Germany, most of them from Iran and Lebanon.

In the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War and the unification of East and West Germany, a large number of Germans with German descent who were displaced in Central and Eastern Europe began to return to Germany at the rate of hundreds of thousands every year. A large part of these immigrants have alienated Germany's language, culture and society and become? Strange Germans? . These latecomers are in great contrast with those foreign immigrants who moved to Germany decades ago and adapted to German culture, but they are not of German origin, which also causes the embarrassing situation of German immigration structure.

In addition to the return of German descent, the migration tide in Germany in the 1990s was also dominated by another force, namely, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the regional turmoil in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to the influx of political asylum seekers and war refugees. From 1990 to 1992, about 900,000 refugees entered Germany, mostly from the former Yugoslavia, Romania or Turkey. 1992, the number of asylum seekers was as high as 430,000, while the total number of refugees who entered the EU (the predecessor of the EU) in that year was only 550,000. In contrast, in the first seven months of this year, 340,000 refugees entered Europe, becoming the largest refugee tide after World War II.

In the half century from the Second World War to the birth of the new immigration law in 2005, the proportion of foreign population in Germany's population composition rose from 1% to nearly 9%. It should be said that foreign immigrants have injected great vitality into Germany's post-war reconstruction and economic development, and Germany's economic prosperity has also increased the capacity of foreign immigrants. However, in the overall economic downturn in Europe, the continuous influx of Syrian refugees still puts Europe in a dilemma.

The history of German immigration to the United States

The earliest Germans who immigrated to the United States were Germans who came to the United States in their personal capacity, because the Netherlands was actually a free state in Germany at that time. The Dutch established the new Amsterdam (today's new york), so German immigrants were in the United States before the British came to the United States.

Since then, Germany has been emigrating. Before independence, there were about 300,000 Germans in the United States, accounting for 10% of the total population. At that time, the United States had a small population and a small territory, with only 13 states and a narrow east coast.

During the War of Independence, Germans took part in a large number of wars against the British. King frederick the great of Prussia also sent Feng? General Steburn led a few Prussians to the United States to help Washington. It has always been thought that the general introduced strict military discipline into the new American army.

Moreover, Britain recruited 30,000 Germans from Germany to come to the United States as mercenaries. Many of these people fled to America. More than half of these 30,000 Germans stayed in the United States after the war.

After the founding of the new United States of America, there was a period when the number of German immigrants was very small. It was not until 1828 that German immigrants who arrived in the United States began to reach the level of 1000 people per year. However, at 1832, this number rose to more than 10000, and jumped to more than 20000 at 1836. However, compared with the number of Germans who emigrated overseas soon, this is only a drop in the ocean; 1846 increased to 50,000, and 1854 exceeded 200,000.

There are many factors behind the sharp increase in German overseas immigration, such as the relaxation of restrictions on overseas immigration by States; For another example, in those areas where the inheritance is evenly distributed among children rather than all passed on to one heir (such as Parati Nath), the scale of the grange is shrinking day by day, and many people have no livelihood; Cancel the village community public land, which harms the interests of farmers; Another example is the rise of the factory system brought about by the resumption of trade after the Napoleonic War and the competition of British goods, which led to the unemployment of many craftsmen, and so on. After the Vienna Conference led to the restoration of aristocrats, the dictatorships in German states also provoked rebellion and fled. There are also a large number of German writers who have written many stories describing American life in German with enthusiastic pens, which are very popular in German states. German-Americans living in booming agricultural towns wrote letters to their relatives in their hometown, and also spread information about the United States throughout Germany, arousing their enthusiasm for the United States. /kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, ships replaced sailboats, making it easier to go to America. In the19th century, more than 5 million people immigrated to the United States, more than any other country.

In the early years of1820s, 75% of the Germans who came to the United States were men, indicating that this kind of immigration was tentative or exploratory at first. Later, Germans moved out with a large number of children, indicating that the whole family came to the United States with the intention of settling down.

The occupation of immigrants seems to be different because of the difference of origin and province, and also because of the different years of immigrants. Early immigrants have always belonged to farmers in southwestern Germany. Even at 1840, about half of them were farmers and odd jobs. /kloc-In the middle and late 20th century, the number of industrial workers and craftsmen among immigrants increased day by day, which not only reflected the regional changes of immigrant sources, but also reflected the rising importance of German industry as a whole. In the last quarter of the19th century, the proportion of German immigrants with rural background dropped from about 1/3 in the early 1970s to slightly higher than 1/4 in the 1990s. Correspondingly, the proportion of immigrants who have worked in the industrial, commercial and trade sectors has increased. Even so, until 1900, most American farmers were of German descent.

/kloc-in the 0 th and 8 th centuries, German immigrants first concentrated in Pennsylvania, and then scattered from north to south in the narrow strip at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. By the middle of the19th century, the situation was different. More than half of German-Americans live in the upper valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, concentrated in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. Until 1900, the situation remained unchanged, because at that time, about 2.5 million Germans in the United States were born in Germany, and about/kloc-0.0 million of them still lived in this area. 1900 The population of German residents in the United States (including those born in Germany and those born in the United States) * * * is about 8 million.

In the process of settling in the Pacific coast of the northwest of the United States, the Germans were also part of the vanguard. Today in Oregon, it is estimated that 1/4 of the population is of German origin. 1857, the Germans established Anaheim City in California near Los Angeles. They grow citrus there, which has always been the main crop in this area.

As far as immigrants to the United States are concerned, Germans have the largest number. They played an important role in American history, not only because of their large number. American industry, education, military defense, catering and entertainment activities all reflect the contribution and influence of German-Americans in style. Even the American language reflects this influence. Kindergarten, cooked food, beef sausage, hamburger and other words all come from German. The Cornes Topeka caravan used by American pioneers crossing the prairie was created by Germans living in the Topeka Valley in Cornes, Pennsylvania. So did the Kentucky rifles used by frontier residents at that time. The Christmas tree was originally a traditional ornament of Christmas in Germany, and later it became an American tradition. Bosch and Lombok, the leading optical instrument companies in America, were both founded by Germans, not to mention the famous beer brands in America. This long-span suspension bridge and its supporting cables were built by a German engineer. Germans are pioneers and giants in the development of many products, including steel, automobiles, wood, chocolate and oil. Germany's military tradition has produced a group of generals who will go down in history for the United States, including Pershing and Eisenhower. They commanded the American army to defeat Germany in World War I and World War II.

In addition to language, many other features of German culture have also been brought to the United States. After several generations, German gradually disappeared, but many cultural features of German-Americans have become universal features of American life. Like the Christmas tree, beef sausages, hamburgers and beer have become the necessities of American lifestyle. Hot dogs, like many other foods with national characteristics, are improvised by Germans in the United States (such as fried chop suey and fried noodles from China), rather than directly imported from the mainland. /kloc-In Cincinnati in the 0/9th century, German food vendors peddled along the street and put beef smoked sausages in long bread to make so-called hot dogs popular in the United States. Cereal porridge is also a masterpiece of a German in19th century. Although not as popular as hot dogs, I'm afraid it's a common occurrence. In the19th century, Germans in urban areas brought many technical skills from Germany. They are engaged in various technical industries, including carpenters, bakers, blacksmiths, butchers, shoemakers, printers, tailors and so on. In cities such as Milwaukee, St Louis, Detroit, new york, Jersey City and Boston in the mid-Kloc-0/9th century, half or more of the Germans employed were skilled workers. In addition, a considerable number of people are engaged in non-manual labor. There are very few unskilled workers, accounting for less than half of the unskilled workers in Ireland in the above cities. /kloc-In Philadelphia in the middle of the 0/9th century, only 14% of Germans did odd jobs, while half to two-thirds of Irish people in Philadelphia did odd jobs. Many Germans have brought the necessary skills to brew beer, and the places where German immigrants live in concentration have just become a broad market for beer consumption. They are not satisfied with the beer brewed by Americans. About13 of Milwaukee's population were Germans in the middle of19th century. The breweries they founded began to appear in the late1840s. Like other newly-opened enterprises, German breweries encountered financial difficulties when they started. But by AD 1860, several breweries operated by Germans in Milwaukee had been successful, and the famous brands were Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Miller. There are also a large number of Germans living in St. Louis and its surrounding areas, which provides a market for the establishment of another German brewery, which is owned by Ann Hess? Bush, they produce Bud weiser beer. Although in the middle of19th century, most of the prosperous enterprises run by German-Americans satisfied the special consumption appetite of German immigrant communities, with the passage of time, German firms serving the American general public began to rise. This situation is sometimes due to the popularity of German-specific products in society (beef sausages and beer are two obvious examples), but it is more common because Germans have technical talents and management ability to produce things that the public needs. For example, 1849, two German immigrants, one named John? Jacob. Bosch is an optician, a man named Henry? Businessman Lombardy co-founded Bosch and Lombardy Optical Instruments Company. The company eventually became the world's largest manufacturer of ground lenses. Its lenses are widely used in glasses, cameras, microscopes, binoculars and other optical equipment. Another German immigrant named John? Augustus? Lublin, who has engineering skills, invented the cable in the United States and used it to build the world's first long-span suspension bridge, including the Brooklyn Bridge. Piano manufacturing is another field that shows that Germans brought technology to the United States. Steinway, Naboo, schnabel and some other famous pianos with American and German surnames still embody this point. /kloc-German immigrants and their descendants in the 0/9th century were the founders of leading manufacturers in many industrial fields in the United States. A man named Frederick? The German immigrant from Wilhauser started as a lumber mill worker, and later made a fortune and established his own wood products company, which is still one of the largest companies in the same industry. Another second-generation German-American named Henry? j? Heinz has been selling agricultural products grown in his garden since he was a teenager. He later set up a food company named after himself, and sold more kinds of food than advertised in the company's original advertisement? 57 kinds? More. With the help of German technology and entrepreneurial spirit, all walks of life are fully reflected in the resounding names of the following manufacturers, such as Stude Baker and Chrysler in the automobile industry, Woolzer Organ Company, Stubborn Glass Company, Wanamak Chain Store, Rockefeller Group, which deals in oil and other industries, and so on. None of these people changed from a German business tycoon to an American business tycoon. They usually start from small businesses, and it is the United States that provides them with opportunities to display their talents.

Political Performance of German-Americans

The Germans are the organizers. No matter what local associations, bowling clubs, trade unions, enterprises, choirs, orchestras, schools, troupes and churches are well organized. They organized a group called. Turner Association? Our sports clubs, with branches all over the United States, emphasize competitive spirit, patriotism and intellectual development. But Germans rarely go to any political organizations. Politics has never intoxicated German-Americans. 1820s rise? Know nothing? During the party, Germans were one of the targets of local people's attacks. However, the target of this attack was mainly Irish, and this historical episode lasted for a short time. Germans have always strongly opposed the laws and movements of prohibition of alcohol. At this point, they formed a United front with Ireland. They also disapprove of so-called sundays, which prohibit many legal recreational activities? Blue method? . However, apart from these problems, Germans don't get involved in politics much. To be sure, at least, it is not as deep as the Irish and its achievements are not the same.

Extended reading:

In 20 12, Germany became the second largest immigrant destination country in the world, second only to the United States.

According to the German weekly Der Spiegel and Pictorial, the OECD pointed out in a recent statistical report that 400,000 immigrants settled in Germany permanently in 20 12 * *, which even exceeded the preferred targets of immigrants in people's minds-Canada and Australia. Only the number of immigrants who settled in the United States surpassed Germany.

It is reported that in 2009, the number of immigrants in Germany ranked eighth in the OECD, but by 20 12, it was second only to the United States, and the total number of immigrants who chose to settle in Germany exceeded that of any European country, Canada and Australia.

An OECD official said:? In 20 12, the number of immigrants in Germany increased by 38% compared with the previous year, which can be said to be a substantial increase. Nevertheless, there is still a considerable gap between Germany and the United States, which ranks first. In 20 12 years, more than10 million immigrants settled in the United States. ?