Immigration in Europe - HumanitarianNet - Universidad de Deusto

INTRODUCTION 19return (loc.cit.). Considering the history of immigration in Europe sincethe 1970s, 4 one could be forgiven for seeing this as another indicationthat the predictions of economists are more convincing, the less theyare encumbered by the complexities of the real world, and thebehaviour of real people.The best we can conclude, perhaps, is that increased labourmigration, especially by unskilled workers, could make a more significantcontribution to reducing global inequality than the liberalisation of tradeand investment. But the usual caveat applies: it should not be seen as apanacea or, in Castles’ words, a “general solution”. Still less should it beseen as a substitute for carefully targeted international developmentassistance, bearing in mind the regional differences in the contributionmade by remittances to the economies of developing countries.Identity, belonging and citizenshipThe issue of the integration of cultural minorities in Europeansocieties naturally figures prominently in the chapters which follow. It isan issue which raises fundamental questions about membership,identity and citizenship and, ultimately, about the future of the nationstatemodel of political organisation itself. These questions must befaced by all countries with significant immigrant minorities, but theyare perhaps most keenly felt in those which, until recently, either werenot, or did not see themselves as, countries of immigration.Germany comes into the latter category. Bosswick’s chapter tracesthe slow and painful process by which, over the past fifty years,German politicians came to terms with the fact that Germany was a“de facto country of immigration”. 5 A key aspect of this process hasbeen the erosion of the ethnic concept of the German nation, throughthe introduction of changes in German citizenship and naturalisationlaw. During the early 1990s, the number of children born in Germany offoreign parents was 80 % more than the number of foreigners whobecame citizens through naturalisation. Since 1 January 2000, however,children of foreign parents born in Germany have automatically becomeGerman citizens, provided one parent holds residence rights, while4 In particular, the failed efforts of such countries as France and Germany to inducesignificant numbers of immigrants to return to their home countries after the clampdownon legal immigration in the early 1970s (Bosswick, Ma Mung).5 During this period, there was a net gain of 9 million people through immigration,with an annual net immigration average of 200,000 foreign citizens (Bosswick).