Abstract
Douglas B. Klusmeyer and Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Immigration Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany: Negotiating Membership and Remaking the Nation, Berghahn: Oxford, 2009; xvi + 330 pp.; 9781845456115, £56.00 (hbk)
Since its foundation, the German state (whether the Kaiserreich, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, Federal Republic or German Democratic Republic) has pursued a policy of labour importation. As some of the statistics provided in this volume indicate, Germany has had some of the highest percentages of migrants in its population amongst European states over the last century, exceeding even the USA in recent decades. Klusmeyer and Papademetriou are certainly not the first scholars to tackle migration in modern German history, as a whole army of people work in this area, following, in particular, the pioneering efforts of Klaus Bade and Ulrich Herbert. Nevertheless, their volume has a lot to offer, representing a concise summary of the key themes and research not simply on the history of migration policy in the Federal Republic, but also since the end of the nineteenth century.
The book has a series of key strengths. In the first place, it takes an interdisciplinary approach which works. This is not some weak edited book barely holding together and based upon a conference at which a variety of scholars from disparate academic disciplines have spoken. This is a tightly constructed, well thought out book written in close co-operation by two scholars who understand their themes in depth. The interdisciplinary aspect lies in the varying approaches. For instance, for historians, it provides a useful sketch of the key developments in the evolution of migration policy since the end of the nineteenth century, admittedly based heavily on some of the key texts. However, the sections on the Kaiserreich and the Nazi period offer an essential background to the discussions on policy within the Federal Republic. The thoroughness of the post Second World War sections deserve comment, as they are the core of the volume. Particularly useful for anyone interested in immigration is the legalistic approach. The book provides an in-depth and incisive analysis of all of the key pieces of legislation involved in the evolution of Germany’s immigration policy since 1945. The authors provide useful commentary upon every step in the legal history of immigration to Germany as well as the underlying provisions in the Federal Constitution.
The second key strength of this book consists of the thorough approach it takes towards all aspects of immigration into the Federal Republic. This is not a conventional history of labour importation, but one which analyses all of the policy towards the various streams of people who have moved to Germany since the Second World War. This means that the book does go over the issue of labour importation. At the same time it also provides an in-depth analysis of the evolution of refugee policy from the acceptance of the Germans fleeing the post-War settlement in Eastern Europe and of those who would continue to arrive as Aussiedler into the 1990s. The analysis also covers the evolution of policy towards non-German refugees, from the Federal Constitution to the asylum compromise of the early 1990s. The description of such events does not simply focus upon the changes in legislation itself, useful as they are in themselves, but also examines the consequences. Throughout, the book focuses on integration policy towards all of the different groups which have moved to Germany in the last 65 years, which increasingly becomes a key theme. It also provides masses of statistical information with numerous extremely useful tables. Furthermore, the book places German immigration, asylum and integration policy within the context of the European Union, offering once again, an extremely useful and detailed analysis on the relationship between German and European immigration policy, while demonstrating the dependence of the former on the latter.
It has become increasingly fashionable in recent years in historical circles, especially in Britain, to look down upon general approaches and studies of important themes. Many scholars make their careers without ever writing a general approach to anything, preferring, instead, the comfort of their primary-based approach. But such general histories often prove much more difficult to execute well than any narrower theme. To produce a book as thorough and useful as this one represents a major achievement. Anyone wanting an introduction to immigration in the Federal Republic should start with Klusmeyer and Papademetriou.