Ever since the 1950s post-war boom the German economy has been dependent on immigrant workers. The majority of those who were at the time referred to as “guest workers” have now returned to their home countries in South and Southeast Europe, but many have stayed on in Germany to earn their keep. Many of the Turkish immigrants who came to Germany at a later date have also remained in the country. This has resulted in Germany gradually developing from a country that accommodated guest workers to a country with regulated immigration.

Repatriates of German descent, who for generations have been living in the states of the former Soviet Union, Romania and Poland, are a second major group of immigrants. Since the collapse of the communist systems they have been returning to Germany in increasing numbers.

These two groups of immigrants resulted in the per capita rate of Immigration to Germany in the 1980s being considerably higher than that of classic immigration countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia. There are more than seven million foreigners, in other words almost nine percent of the population, living in Germany. In addition there are also 1.5 million foreigners who have taken German citizenship, and some 4.5 million repatriates. In total, around 15 million people in Germany have an “immigrant background”, which the German Statistics Office defines, among other things, as including naturalized foreigners as well as children with one foreign parent. Among the foreigners, some 1.7 million persons with Turkish citizenship form the largest group, followed by the Italians with 530,000.

Over the past two decades progress has been made with regard to the integration of immigrants: Acquiring German citizenship has also been facilitated, contacts between immigrants and Germans are closer, and there is more widespread acceptance of ethnic cultural variety. And the new immigration law provides for the first time an all-embracing legal framework that considers all aspects of immigration policy. And yet integration remains a challenge for politicians and society alike. The Federal Government considers the integration of foreigners living in Germany to be a focus of its work, and is foregrounding improving language skills, education and integration into the labor market. In July 2006, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel initiated the first Integration Summit inviting representatives of all social groups impacting on integration to attend. The result was a “National Integration Plan”, presented in mid-2007. It contains clear goals as well as over 400 concrete measures for government and non-government actors. Thus, a network of “education patrons” are to support children and young people from immigrant families in their education and training, and the business federations have agreed to offer young migrants better training opportunities. Implementation of the plan is to be monitored on a regular basis.