A misdirected development?
There has been a flood of non-German-speaking immigrants into this country over the past decades. They now have their own inner-city neighborhoods, newspapers, clubs and houses of worship. It’s hard for many Germans to view these groups as being willing or even capable of assimilation and this whole German de facto immigration process is seen by many to be a misdirected development at best.
And perhaps it is, under the present system. But it is surprising how the behavior of these modern-day immigrants resembles that of the German immigrants who came to the United States over the course of the past three centuries. They too formed their own “ghettos” and it took them decades before their children and their grandchildren became fully Americanized. What was different about “our” ghettos?
No one knows the number of German-Americans today. And how could you know? If your grandfather on your mothers side originally came from Cologne and he married an Irish girl and your father’s great-grandparents were originally Polish, are you German-American yet? Of course you’re not. Oder doch – or are you? It seems that once you’ve landed in that proverbial American melting pot, it’s all over when it comes to insisting upon having an iron-clad pedigree.
And this might explain the American fascination with genealogy. Most any American you ask will proudly go into excruciatingly painful detail about his ancestry, telling you things about his roots that not even the most enthusiastic botanist could ever possibly be interested in. We all have to come from somewhere, as Americans. And we’ve just got to talk about it, too. And if that melting pot may have confused matters a bit? All the better, then we’ll just interpret our past as we see fit.
That is why when you begin looking at German-American Herkunft (ancestry) it looks so, well, fuzzy. It is precisely due to countless examples like the one above that the figure of 50 to 60 million German-Americans reported during a recent census is in reality an educated guess at most. A documented fact, however, is that seven million people born in the former states of Germany had settled in America since the 17th century. Most estimates (for the period between 1820 and 1970) place German immigrants at making up only about 15% of the total immigration population. Immigration to the United States from Germany since then has been minimal.
And these numbers take care of a popular myth that has always amused me, by the way (at least it seems to be popular here in Germany): The percentage of German-speakers was never large enough that German might have become the official or even second language of any state in the Union – so just forget about it endlich (finally)!
And what does any of this have to do with modern-day immigration in Germany? Not much really, because there is no real immigration and assimilation taking place here. Germany has never been an immigration land in the classic sense, or at least not in the way Americans understand immigration.
Immigration in America has always been personified by the individual who comes striving to attain the American dream. It has a distinct multi-cultural aspect to it and assimilation, though implicitly expected, has always a taken back seat to this all-important concept of individualism. The United States was built by individuals fleeing their home country’s poverty or political oppression and this process has kept it vital. German immigration policy, however, is founded primarily upon assimilation and it appears, at least, that an insurmountable barrier stays in place here until the assimilation, as if through magic, is suddenly complete. The multi-cultural is implicitly rejected, in other words, and the expectation of assimilation is a much more immediate one.
And this, perhaps, is the real misdirected development. If the non-German-speaking immigrants in this country, and more importantly their German-speaking offspring born and raised in this country, are not given a real opportunity to assimilate for what they are, i.e. attain citizenship now, then these modern ghettos are most likely here to stay.
Comments
Good post, Clarsonimus. I aggree a lot with you characterisation of immigration, integration, and assimiliation in US and Germany and the criticism you have.
We wrote:
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/104-Europe-could-learn-from-America-how-to-succesfully-integrate-immigrants.html
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/85-Europes-angry-Muslims-are-considered-a-risk-to-US-security.html
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/245-Germany-loses-the-brightest-minds-to-the-US.html
This is just a *minor* point: Sam Huntington sees major problems with Hispanic subculture. He might exaggerate a lot or his theses are exxagerated in the meda. What do you think. Is "multi-culturalism" causing a problem for the US?
Not just with Hispanics who have their own Spanish media, shops, culture etc. US companies and government agencies treat Spanish as a second official language it seems. I am on thin ice here, but isn't it true that many Hispanics don't speak English very well at all and don't learn it much, because they don't have to? Isn't that worse than what you describe as "ghettos" in Germany?
Language is usually a unifying factor. So two languages could cause problems, but they don't have. There is friction in Canada, but nearly all Canadians speak decent English AND French.
Huntington focuses on Hispanics, but also mean Republicans and Democrats, red and blue Americans, conservatives and liberals, faith based and reality-based Americans seem to be living in two different worlds or "ghettos". Just as Jon Stewart said it's not about different political interests, but about the complety different perceptions of Americans: blue Americans thought Teri Schiavo was dead for 20 years and red Americans thought she was two pilates hours away from joining some pop singers. Isn't that a problem for the unity of the United States. I heard some TV channel started filming about a new civil war in the US.... Or about some sezession... Sounds like a fun TV series... Sure, the media exaggerates a lot. There is still a lot red and blue Americans agree on, but it gets less and less it seems.
Regarding the 60 million German ancestry in the census: Well, it's all perception.
It's not reality that counts, but perception. :-)
"Most estimates (for the period between 1820 and 1970) place German immigrants at making up only about 15% of the total immigration population. Immigration to the United States from Germany since then has been minimal."
I thought we are one of the largest groups that become new US citizens every year. Do you have some data on German immigration to the US, compared to immigration from other countries?
Christy and Ben, would you like to participate in the Carnival of German American Relations?
http://america-germany.atlanticreview.org/
We need and desire some more liberal texts.
Sorry, that this comment is longer than your post.
Jorg; March 12, 2006 2:05 PM
Great posts, both ot them, the article and the comment. Thank you.
Everytime I'm in the US to visit my friend, she tells me what is "american" to her, what "good amrericans" do or don't do. We two are very much like in mind referring to our ethic ideals as well as to our perception. She realizes that there seems to be a deep canyon between blue and red americans in many respects, and that concerns her a lot, and me too. And this canyon of different perception at least touches even the basic values of US-american self-conception. What is freedom, and what is democracy? Are Bush-&-Company really stand for it?
On the other side (of the Atlantic): The inability of many Germans to accept and integrate ethnic or religious groups as what they are may actually cause a major misdevelopement in the integration process. I entirely aggree to Clarsonimus here. Another point I see and like to mention in addition: This seems to be a problem that almost every nation on earth has. Burning suburbs and local turmoils are not a typical german phenomenon, in fact, unlike others, we only had little of them. The USA, of course, is unlike and incomparable to any other nation, it never had a homogeneous ethnic or cultural identity that people might see endangered with "foreign infiltration".
norbert; March 13, 2006 11:24 AM
Thank you. I wrote a post about 9/11 phone calls, but I ended up getting back to the red and blue issue. The University of Maryland published an opinion poll survey called "The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry voters".
Here's a quote:
"A large majority of Bush supporters believes that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda and that clear evidence of this support has been found. A large majority believes that most experts also have this view, and a substantial majority believe that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Large majorities of Kerry supporters believe the opposite on all these points."
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/280-Chicago-Tribune-Germany-says-911-hijackers-called-Syria,-Saudi-Arabia.html
"Separate Realities" sounds worse than "Parallelgesellschaften", i.e. the term often used when describing the failures integration of immigrants in Germany.
Jorg; March 13, 2006 1:41 PM
"Look at all the headlines around the world. Where are people most diligently slitting each other's throats? It's where there's diversity. Diversity of religion, of race, of political affiliation. When you ask diverse people to share the same territory, you're asking for trouble." People say America is different, but the only thing different about America is that white people here are happy to be walked all over."
-Jared Taylor
"People who have made up their minds about a man do not like to have their opinions changed, to reverse their judgments on account of some new evidence or new arguments, and the man who tries to compel them to change their minds is at least wasting his time, and he may be asking for trouble." - John O'Hara
Yo; March 13, 2006 5:25 PM
Great reading, keep up the great posts.
Peace, JiggaDigga
JiggaDigga; April 7, 2006 7:20 PM