Text 27

Another problem has been the integration of several hundred thousand ethnic Germans who in recent years have come to Germany from Russia (Volga Germans), Poland, Romania, and elsewhere. In contrast to the foreign workers, these are immigrants who receive German citizenship on the grounds that they are the descendants of ethnic Germans who emigrated to countries in the East even hundreds of years ago and were then mistreated or repressed in some way during and after WW II because they were of German extraction. Many of these recent immigrants do not speak German well or at all and are not in other ways culturally very German. Also many of them have few skills that allow them to get good jobs. The result has often been frustration on the part of young immigrants in particular and resentment and even rejection by some native Germans. A third group of foreigners consists of asylum seekers. During the Third Reich, German Jews and opponents of the regime had great difficulty finding asylum in other countries. The creators of the German Basic Law therefore placed a provision in the constitution that guaranteed asylum in Germany to persons who were politically persecuted in their home countries. The problem is that this provision has been used over the last two decades by millions of persons from eastern Europe and several third world countries seeking economic asylum. As in other countries including the United States, there is no German law granting asylum to such immigrants, and elaborate procedures have had to be established for determining whether those seeking asylum really are victims of political persecution. This determination often takes years, and in the meantime, the refugees live mostly on relatively generous welfare benefits that hardly serve as inducements to return home.

Text 28

Since reunification, Germany has surely faced more numerous, varied, and difficult challenges than it expected in the 1990s. Most Germans probably realized that there would be a variety of problems associated with reunification, but the number, nature, and severity of the problems were not anticipated. Public opinion polls suggest that most Germans, including those in the former GDR, would not want to see unification reversed, but most wish that developments had been more positive, especially in the economy. It is not surprising that there is much disappointment and even bitterness in eastern Germany today in spite of numerous dramatic improvements in the infrastructure, travel opportunities, and political freedoms gained since the collapse of the Wall. But neither is it surprising that there is growing resentment in western Germany to the seemingly endless transfer payments to the East. Nor did Germans anticipate the effects of a problematic global economy that would hit them with particular severity just as reunification was occurring. Full employment in eastern Germany with wages comparable to those in the western part of the country simply could not be achieved in the face of the loss of markets for eastern German products, low productivity, and the competition coming from low-wage countries in eastern Europe and the third world. We should also point out that in economic terms, Germany is still a very wealthy country. Germany has been a leader in promoting European integration, seeking both the deepening and the widening of the EU and the expansion of NATO. It is a leading advocate of human rights throughout the world, and it continues to give funds more generously than the United States to various international causes, including foreign aid.