The new land of opportunity is...Germany

[Velar Fricative]

www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-new-land-of-opportunity-for-immigrants-is-germany/2014/07/27/93464262-7eff-4931-817c-786db6d21ec8_story.html


BERLIN — An unemployed architect back in Barcelona, Jordi Colombi weighed his options and decided to start a new life. Armed with two suitcases and a Spanish-omelet recipe to feed his homesickness, he arrived two months ago in the land of opportunity.



Germany.



In the United States, the immigration debate is toxic and paralyzed. Political parties raging against foreigners are surging at the polls in Britain and France. But in Germany, the government is rolling out a red carpet by simplifying immigration procedures, funding free language classes, even opening “ welcome centers” for newcomers looking to carve out a piece of the German dream.



In the rankings of the globe’s most prosperous countries, this economic powerhouse of 82 million has now leapfrogged Canada, Britain, Italy and Spain to become the largest destination for immigrants after the United States, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.



Because of a morbidly low birthrate, the population here is shrinking, raising the pivotal question of who will keep the massive German economy humming in the years ahead. Yet even as insular nations facing similar plights, such as Japan, continue to resist importing workers, Germany is counting on immigrants such as Colombi. In a nation where former Chancellor Helmut Kohl once famously declared that “Germany is not an immigrant country,” the 36-year-old Spaniard is part of what is fast becoming a global experiment in the immigration debate.


His place of employment, a construction site near the northern fringes of this fast-globalizing city, is a symbol of the welcoming society at work. English is the lingua franca at the site, a Tower of Babel studded with Hebrew-speaking managers from Israel, Bulgarian demolition crews, German bricklayers and African day laborers. In his office trailer on a recent afternoon, Colombi, the project’s architect, who shifts daily between English, Catalan, Spanish, Italian and basic German, pored over blueprints with an engineering intern from India.



“My life has totally changed in the two months since I arrived,” said Colombi, a thin, pale ghost of a man with a Van Gogh beard. “I have a job, an apartment, a new life. I still don’t like the food or the weather, but this is now my home.”



Sustaining a boom


Germany has gone through waves of immigration before, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, when great numbers of Turkish guest workers helped provide the backbone of its Cold War-era economy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans poured back into the country, mostly from points east.



But the latest upsurge is largely based on Germany’s reemergence in recent years as Europe’s undisputed economic leader, a beacon of light on a continent still suffering from the aftermath of a brutal debt crisis. In the 28-nation European Union, free movement of labor means nationals can easily relocate from one country to the next. And with unemployment at 25.1 percent in Spain, 26.6 percent in Greece, and 12.6 percent in Italy, Germany — with an economy built on industrial giants such as Siemens and an army of innovative small and midsize companies — has never looked so good.



But Germany also is looking beyond Europe for prospective workers, with German factories courting Indian engineers and German universities competing for Chinese students. In 2012, Germany simplified the process for immigrants from outside the E.U. In 2013, Germany introduced a “Blue Card” system, effectively granting entry to anyone with a university degree and a job offer with a minimum salary of $50,000 to $64,000 a year, depending on the field. As a result, the average immigrant moving to Germany is better educated and more skilled than the average German.



To a far smaller degree, Germany also is reaching out to the jobless. In 2013, the government launched a special program aimed at young, unemployed Europeans ages 18 to 35, covering their travel, language courses and living costs while offering them vocational training in Germany. Interest in the $609 million program proved so overwhelming, however, that the German government had to cease taking new applicants in April.



Chancellor Angela Merkel — echoing the warnings of other European leaders such as Britain’s David Cameron — has spoken out against immigrants relocating here merely to tap generous domestic welfare benefits. Yet in contrast to the foreigner-bashing unfolding across Europe, she told economic leaders late last year that “Germany today is a country that is indeed very open to immigration.”



“It is really rare anywhere to see the kind of burst in immigration we’re seeing in Germany,” said Thomas Liebig, the OECD’s senior migration specialist. “It’s being driven by free mobility within Europe, but this is also because the German government has taken steps to modernize, and liberalize, immigration laws.”



In some places, hostility


The number of immigrants is expected to taper off as other European countries begin to recover. Yet the sheer size of the recent wave — about 400,000 immigrants arrived in 2012, up 38 percent compared with the previous year — is testing the limits of Germany’s welcome mat.



In the struggling coal town of Dortmund, an apparent backlash against foreigners led to the election to the city council last month of a far-right politician who campaigned on the slogan, “Germany for Germans.” Also last month, a report from Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution registered 473 physical assaults motivated by xenophobia in 2013, up 20 percent from a year earlier. And many Germans still call the lack of assimilation among Turkish immigrants — including their second- and third-generation children and grandchildren — a leading national problem.



But anti-immigrant and far-right parties have gained nowhere near as much traction in Germany as they have in countries elsewhere in Europe. Observers call it partly a product of World War II-era guilt, a sense that Germans owe their neighbors a share of their newfound prosperity.



But it also is an invention of German pragmatism. The aging population is shrinking here, with the 2011 census showing a loss of about 1.5 million people since the 1980s. As the decline accelerates, by 2030 the government predicts a hole as big as 2.3 million workers in the German labor force.



Whether they like it or not, “Germans know they need immigrants,” said Reiner Klingholz, managing director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development.



Multilingual immigrants such as Colombi have started to fill that gap, leveraging the relatively high level of English spoken in international companies in Germany to land work. In day-to-day business, however, German remains essential here, and jobs like his form a bridge to wider opportunity once he masters the language.



A welcome in Berlin


In Germany, Berlin also is an outlier, perhaps the least-German city, where foreigners and non-German cultures thrive. After he finishes work and language classes, for instance, Colombi heads home to the neighborhood of Neukolln — a center of global hipsterdom where English, Spanish, Italian and Turkish are almost as common as German at independent coffeehouses, pop-up art galleries and vinyl record shops.



“Berlin is different than other parts of Germany, and that’s why I think I can make it here,” he said. “It is more relaxed, more accepting than other German cities, and there is no pressure to behave a certain way.”



Yet as other recent arrivals from southern Europe can attest, transitions even to foreigner-friendly German cities such as Berlin and Frankfurt can be tough. It is one reason why experts say a relatively large number of immigrants who move here eventually go home.



David Fernandez, an unemployed social worker from Madrid, decided last year while marching in a street protest that “nothing in Spain was ever going to change.” He had never been to Germany, but “everyone was talking about how you could get work, how you could build something real. So I decided, I will go.”



He found a cheap room online before he landed in Berlin. But speaking no German or English, he struggled to communicate with his new landlords, and eventually moved into a group house. There, he faced a series of culture clashes with his German roommates. “They are so serious, and not always the warmest people,” he said. “It’s not what I’m used to.”



Meanwhile, his linguistic disadvantage left him working as a dishwasher despite his university degree. He quit that job in January after a dispute with this boss. Now, he is working for minimum wage cleaning floors — ironically — at a Berlin branch of the Spanish retailer Zara.



“There’s no work in Spain and I’m not going back just to live with my parents until I’m 40,” said Fernandez, a blue-eyed 25-year-old with an infectious smile. “It’s not easy, I know that now. But I am going to make this work.”

[summer]

I agree with this. There are a lot of upsides here. It's green and relatively safe. I've never seen a rat or a cockroach and the buildings are well-made. Good, affordable health care, great leave and vacation, social services work well.

Buuut the people, *sigh* IMO, they can be okay-ish friendly when you get to know them, but that ain't easy. Definitely not a warm, fun people, and that makes me not want to stay forever.

But yeah, my language classes were free (6 mos, Mon-Fri, 9am-2am), paid by the unemployment office and they were awesome.

Can I also add that Germany will never have that "you can become anything!!" feel that America has because they don't have that personality, KWIM? They are kind of like Denmark in that they don't want their neighbor to start thinking too highly of himself, and you can't be good at something and just go do it. You still need 2 years of education in that and do it "that" way.

Anecdote: And as for that German class, ask any of the other immigrants in that class, people from Russia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Bulgaria, etc...) 90% were trying to get to the U.S. somehow. They all thought America seemed so "cool"

[meshaliuknits]

Jul 28, 2014 10:55:16 GMT -5 summer said:

But yeah, my language classes were free (6 mos, Mon-Fri, 9am-2am), paid by the unemployment office and they were awesome.

How hard is it to learn? It's starting to look like German will become useful in my position even if I never become fluent.

[summer]

I had it easier than most in the class because English and German share a decent amount of words. It's also a "phonetic" language so the sounds are relatively easy. There aren't any silent "e"'s for example and "ei" always makes the same sound.

The grammar, however, is the devil. I don't even attempt anymore. I understand everyone and they understand me and I'm fine with that.

[summer]

I just don't see it being "the land of opportunity" but I'm biased. I could see it being "the land of having a decent, reliably peaceful existence." But you aren't going to grow up thinking you can be anything and the world is yours and that you'll be the next Will Smith, or something. Not that that is truly an option for all Americans, but you know what I mean.

It depends on how one defines "opportunity."

[starlily]

Jul 28, 2014 11:07:53 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Jul 28, 2014 10:55:16 GMT -5 summer said:

But yeah, my language classes were free (6 mos, Mon-Fri, 9am-2am), paid by the unemployment office and they were awesome.

How hard is it to learn? It's starting to look like German will become useful in my position even if I never become fluent.

Mesh, check out what the Goethe Institute in SF has to offer. I remember going there for special events a few times with my high school German class. I was such a nerd in that class! I wish more of the language stuck with me, but it wasn't like I had a lot of people to speak German with, especially out here in BFE, over the last 20 years.

[starlily]

And now I'm down the rabbit hole of taking Goethe's placement test just to see what I still know. I can actually get the jist of most of what I'm reading, despite my terrible grammar skills.

[pixy0stix]

Jul 28, 2014 11:22:20 GMT -5 summer said:

I had it easier than most in the class because English and German share a decent amount of words. It's also a "phonetic" language so the sounds are relatively easy. There aren't any silent "e"'s for example and "ei" always makes the same sound.

The grammar, however, is the devil. I don't even attempt anymore. I understand everyone and they understand me and I'm fine with that.

I agree with this. The grammar throws me every damn time. I have to disconnect that portion of my brain before I can begin to speak.

[ttt]

And yet, I applied to a ton of German companies and none would sponsor a visa for me

[summer]

Jul 28, 2014 12:43:47 GMT -5 ttt said:

And yet, I applied to a ton of German companies and none would sponsor a visa for me

Try again. The process of getting your certifications and degrees recognized from other countries used to be a nightmare ("Yes, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.  What do you mean you haven't heard of them??" says the entitled American)  I've heard it's been streamlined.  Maybe they are more accomodating now??

Please try! Don't leave me here alone! I'm already mad origami didn't end up here! You heard me, origami!

[NitaX]

Jul 28, 2014 11:22:20 GMT -5 summer said:

I had it easier than most in the class because English and German share a decent amount of words. It's also a "phonetic" language so the sounds are relatively easy. There aren't any silent "e"'s for example and "ei" always makes the same sound.

The grammar, however, is the devil. I don't even attempt anymore. I understand everyone and they understand me and I'm fine with that.

Dittoing this. I took German in high school and in college and I found it to be pretty easy because of the word similarity. Wasser = Water, Vater = Father = Strasse = Street and so on. But there are different rules for different verbs - I'm forgetting the name of the verb, but basically the positioning for something vertical and horizontal required two totally different words. 

[meshaliuknits]

Jul 28, 2014 13:33:41 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Jul 28, 2014 11:22:20 GMT -5 summer said:

I had it easier than most in the class because English and German share a decent amount of words. It's also a "phonetic" language so the sounds are relatively easy. There aren't any silent "e"'s for example and "ei" always makes the same sound.

The grammar, however, is the devil. I don't even attempt anymore. I understand everyone and they understand me and I'm fine with that.

Dittoing this. I took German in high school and in college and I found it to be pretty easy because of the word similarity. Wasser = Water, Vater = Father = Strasse = Street and so on. But there are different rules for different verbs - I'm forgetting the name of the verb, but basically the positioning for something vertical and horizontal required two totally different words. 

My eyes just crossed.

Why can't I have been bought by a Spanish company?

[ttt]

Jul 28, 2014 13:30:31 GMT -5 summer said:

Jul 28, 2014 12:43:47 GMT -5 ttt said:

And yet, I applied to a ton of German companies and none would sponsor a visa for me

Try again. The process of getting your certifications and degrees recognized from other countries used to be a nightmare ("Yes, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.  What do you mean you haven't heard of them??" says the entitled American)  I've heard it's been streamlined.  Maybe they are more accomodating now??

Please try! Don't leave me here alone! I'm already mad origami didn't end up here! You heard me, origami!

I'm trying! Most of the companies just flat out say, if you don't have a right to work in the EU, we will not accept your application. But you can't get a right to work in the EU unless you have a job. So  

And I even spreche some Deutsch and have German-Austrian ancestry! Let me back into the Vaterland! 

[summer]

Jul 28, 2014 13:37:09 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Jul 28, 2014 13:33:41 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Dittoing this. I took German in high school and in college and I found it to be pretty easy because of the word similarity. Wasser = Water, Vater = Father = Strasse = Street and so on. But there are different rules for different verbs - I'm forgetting the name of the verb, but basically the positioning for something vertical and horizontal required two totally different words. 

My eyes just crossed.

Why can't I have been bought by a Spanish company?

Dude, it gets so much worse.  

My German teacher gave us a chart of the I-can't-even -remember how many different ways declination changes depending on what you are talking about.  The word new or "neu" could at any time be neue, neues, neuer, neuen, neuem depending on the noun being der, die or das.  ETA: and depending on whether the sentence is accusative, nominative, dative or genitive. And der, die, and das are completely random.  There is no way of knowing which belongs to which noun outside of memorization, though if it ends in "-ung", go with "die".   I CAN'T!

My teacher told me if I didn't memorize them, I would always be considered an "ausländer" (foreigner).  I was like, "Um, cool, cuz I'm American."  *flips hair*

[ttt]

Jul 28, 2014 13:56:56 GMT -5 summer said:

Jul 28, 2014 13:37:09 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

My eyes just crossed.

Why can't I have been bought by a Spanish company?

Dude, it gets so much worse.  

My German teacher gave us a chart of the I-can't-even -remember how many different ways declination changes depending on what you are talking about.  The word new or "neu" could at any time be neue, neues, neuer, neuen, neuem depending on the noun being der, die or das.  ETA: and depending on whether the sentence is accusative, nominative, dative or genitive. And der, die, and das are completely random.  There is no way of knowing which belongs to which noun outside of memorization, though if it ends in "-ung", go with "die".   I CAN'T!

My teacher told me if I didn't memorize them, I would always be considered an "ausländer" (foreigner).  I was like, "Um, cool, cuz I'm American."  *flips hair*

This is the WORST PART. I can deal with all the cases because thanks high school Latin. But the fact that the genders are completely random and the word itself gives you NO CLUES WHATSOEVER is just endlessly frustrating. 

[Velar Fricative]

German is easy in many ways (mostly with the Germanic vocabulary it shares with English), but hard as fuck in other ways. I did not enjoy learning it as much as I enjoyed learning other languages.

[NitaX]

Jul 28, 2014 13:56:56 GMT -5 summer said:

Jul 28, 2014 13:37:09 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

My eyes just crossed.

Why can't I have been bought by a Spanish company?

Dude, it gets so much worse.  

My German teacher gave us a chart of the I-can't-even -remember how many different ways declination changes depending on what you are talking about.  The word new or "neu" could at any time be neue, neues, neuer, neuen, neuem depending on the noun being der, die or das.  ETA: and depending on whether the sentence is accusative, nominative, dative or genitive. And der, die, and das are completely random.  There is no way of knowing which belongs to which noun outside of memorization, though if it ends in "-ung", go with "die".   I CAN'T!

My teacher told me if I didn't memorize them, I would always be considered an "ausländer" (foreigner).  I was like, "Um, cool, cuz I'm American."  *flips hair*

Hmmm - see, I was taught that Der, Die and Das were all gender specific. Die = Feminine , Der = Masculine and Das = Neutral. Then I just memorized the gender specific nouns. Makes me wonder if your teacher was being deliberately mean. LOL My German teacher was German so I don't think he was making that up.

[pixy0stix]

See, I just disconnect my brain and go. I can't think about it too much or else I start tripping up. My dh is convinced it's because I'm mostly german that it's all ancestral memory happening.

[summer]

Jul 28, 2014 14:50:00 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Jul 28, 2014 13:56:56 GMT -5 summer said:

Dude, it gets so much worse.  

My German teacher gave us a chart of the I-can't-even -remember how many different ways declination changes depending on what you are talking about.  The word new or "neu" could at any time be neue, neues, neuer, neuen, neuem depending on the noun being der, die or das.  ETA: and depending on whether the sentence is accusative, nominative, dative or genitive. And der, die, and das are completely random.  There is no way of knowing which belongs to which noun outside of memorization, though if it ends in "-ung", go with "die".   I CAN'T!

My teacher told me if I didn't memorize them, I would always be considered an "ausländer" (foreigner).  I was like, "Um, cool, cuz I'm American."  *flips hair*

Hmmm - see, I was taught that Der, Die and Das were all gender specific. Die = Feminine , Der = Masculine and Das = Neutral. Then I just memorized the gender specific nouns. Makes me wonder if your teacher was being deliberately mean. LOL My German teacher was German so I don't think he was making that up.

They are, but they have nothing to do with being masculine or feminine.  Das Auto, der Mond (moon), die Sonne (sun), das Buch (book), die Hoffnung (hope), der Kühlschrank ...none of these things are gendered so to speak.  It's maddening.  I could see if maybe the ones that ended in "a" were feminine or something.  It's just completely random!  At least make all appliances neutral, or all school supplies feminine or SOMETHING!

[iammalcolmx]

Jul 28, 2014 13:30:31 GMT -5 summer said:

Jul 28, 2014 12:43:47 GMT -5 ttt said:

And yet, I applied to a ton of German companies and none would sponsor a visa for me

Try again. The process of getting your certifications and degrees recognized from other countries used to be a nightmare ("Yes, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.  What do you mean you haven't heard of them??" says the entitled American)  I've heard it's been streamlined.  Maybe they are more accomodating now??

Please try! Don't leave me here alone! I'm already mad origami didn't end up here! You heard me, origami!

She tried for YEARS. So much so when Korea came up her H first thought she wouldn't even consider it.

[summer]

This bullshit:

[zelda25]

Jul 28, 2014 15:15:02 GMT -5 summer said:

This bullshit:

LOL. I remember this stuff driving me mad in my college German days. I will say that English grammar rules made more sense to me after studying German grammar.

[origami]

Jul 28, 2014 13:56:19 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jul 28, 2014 13:30:31 GMT -5 summer said:

Try again. The process of getting your certifications and degrees recognized from other countries used to be a nightmare ("Yes, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.  What do you mean you haven't heard of them??" says the entitled American)  I've heard it's been streamlined.  Maybe they are more accomodating now??

Please try! Don't leave me here alone! I'm already mad origami didn't end up here! You heard me, origami!

I'm trying! Most of the companies just flat out say, if you don't have a right to work in the EU, we will not accept your application. But you can't get a right to work in the EU unless you have a job. So  

And I even spreche some Deutsch and have German-Austrian ancestry! Let me back into the Vaterland! 

Same thing here. I can't seem to get a job without a work visa and I can't get a work visa without a job. I think I'm going to have to resort to shady craigslist jobs. ttt you might have better luck working for a German company in the US, then transferring internally.

summer I tried! I tried! ::sobs::

[alleinesein]

Jul 28, 2014 11:15:55 GMT -5 @choco said:

Jul 28, 2014 11:07:53 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

How hard is it to learn? It's starting to look like German will become useful in my position even if I never become fluent.

I was wondering the same thing. German seems really tough to learn to me.

Its both easy and hard.

And for the love of god do not get me started on the fact that in order to say that you arent going to do something THEY WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE DAMN SENTECE   In English you indicate up front that you aren't doing something- I am not,  I will not, etc but in German they toss on the not part at the very end.

[rupertpenny]

This doesn't surprise me. I spent the summer of 2009 taking classes at the Goethe Institute in Freiburg and besides all of us American graduate students who needed to pass language tests, everyone else was trying to get into Germany for the long haul.

I know it isn't the point, but this article doesn't do a good job explaining the Gastarbeiter program. It makes it sound like they were in East Germany, which is not true, and it makes it sound like it was only Turkish workers. There were plenty of people from Iberia too, and Yugoslavia. Moving to Germany for work is nothing new. Also, I don't think there were a whole lot of ethnic Germans left in Eastern Europe after the war to pour back into Germany after reunification.