Resettlers of German origin in the great waves of immigration - what has be-come of them? : the integration situation of resettlers of German origin on the labour market in Germany

Abstract

"By far the highest immigration figures in the history of resettlers of German origin being admitted into Germany were achieved in 1989 and 1990 with some 400 000 people in each of the years. Since then the immigration of resettlers of German origin has been falling continuously as a result of legal regulations and also of developments in the countries of origin. In 1996 about 178 000 resettlers were admitted. This report deals with the occupational integration of the resettlers who came to Germany during the time of the great waves of migration. The course of their integration was accompanied by a longitudinal study with three waves, based on a representative sample of participants in German language courses during the period from 1991 until the end of 1993. The subject of this article is the integration situation at the time of the third wave of the survey. It is studied against the background of the conditions in Germany, as these conditions form the standard for integration from an economic point of view. Most of the resettlers bring with them only slight knowledge of the German language, and occupational experience or job skills which do not particularly match job requirements in Germany. In spite of this male resettlers who came to Germany in the early nineties found jobs relatively quickly; female resettlers on the other hand had far greater problems. At the end of 1993, a good two years after completing the German language course, 79% of the men and 54% of the women were in employment. The unemployment rate stood at just under 26% for the women, many of whom had already left the labour market; the unemployment rate for men was 14%. More extensive analyses showed that in principle resettlers' chances of finding work were determined by the same factors, apart from sex, as German nationals: by age, occupational qualifications and finally also by the knowledge of the German language. The influence of the level of occupational qualifications on the chances of integration is astonishing in that most of the resettlers do not find a job in their previous occupation. Less than one third found employment in a further field of their previous occupational area, and those whohad to change occupational area usually had jobs with low qualification requirements. However, well-qualified people, such those with a university degree, had better chances of finding employment in the occupational area in which they were originally employed. More than 50% were employed in their previous occupational area, whereas the proportion was far lower in all the other qualification groups. Although many resettlers had to make concessions with regard to their occupations, all in all their satisfaction with their new situation in life was very large. 81% of the resettlers said they had virtually never regretted migrating. It is particularly remarkable that the number of people who were convinced that they had made the right decision in migrating increased steadily from the first to the third waves of the survey." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Koller, B. (1997): Aussiedler der großen Zuwanderungswellen - was ist aus ihnen geworden? Die Eingliederungssituation von Aussiedlerinnen und Aussiedlern auf dem Arbeitsmarkt in Deutschland. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 30, No. 4, p. 766-789.