Repatriates and ethnic repatriates

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Immigrants of German origin who came to the Federal Republic of Germany from a state in the Eastern Bloc or the former Eastern Bloc in order to settle there are understood as repatriates and late repatriates . Until the end of the 1980s, most of them came from Poland and Romania, and since 1990 mostly from the successor states of the Soviet Union .

Until December 31, 1992, such people were called emigrants in official usage ,

Spätaussiedler people are only named if they moved to the Federal Republic of Germany on January 1, 1993. Anyone who migrated to the Federal Republic of Germany before January 1, 1993 and was recognized as a resettler (regardless of the use of the term in the colloquial language) retains the resettler status. Recognition as a repatriate or ethnic German repatriate is based on the Federal Expellees Act . Above all, the terms Aussiedler and Spätaussiedler are intended to encompass members of German minorities , some of whose families have lived in East Central Europe , Eastern and Southeastern Europe , but also partly in Asia, and have emigrated to Germany.

Legal situation since September 14, 2013

The relevant law for examining the requirements for the recognition of ethnic repatriation status is the Federal Expellees Act (BVFG), which came into force on May 19, 1953 and which has now been applied in a very modified form due to many reforms. The BVFG is still explicitly "not an instrument for controlling immigration [...], but still an instrument for dealing with the consequences of the war".

Persons who enter the Federal Republic of Germany by way of the admission procedure as a German national, first acquire the status of German status according to Article 116.1 of the Basic Law and, after issuing the certificate according to §  15.1 BVFG, then acquire German citizenship by law within the meaning of Article 116 of the Basic Law . At the same time, the status as ethnic repatriate was acquired . In addition to the ethnic repatriate, family members of the ethnic repatriate can (since September 14, 2013) also be included in the notification of admission ( Section 7  (2) BVFG), including:

  • the spouse of the repatriate,
  • Descendants of the late repatriates (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.).

These persons are given a so-called inclusion notice in accordance with Section 27 (2) BVFG. The Federal Expellees Act also enables other family members of the ethnic German repatriate who do not belong to the aforementioned Group of people are leaving at the same time as a person who is in possession of a notice of admission or inclusion ( Section 8 (2) BVFG). Legally, this is made possible by a national visa limited to 90 days without the consent of the immigration authorities, which is  converted into a residence permit for family reunification after admission in the federal territory in accordance with Section 39 No. 1 AufenthV (resolution of the Standing Conference of Interior Ministers and Senators of the Länder of December 6-7, 2007). These other family members include:

  • the spouse of a descendant of the ethnic German repatriate (son-in-law / daughter-in-law or son-in-law / granddaughter, etc.)
  • the minor and unmarried descendant of a spouse of the repatriate (step-son / daughter or step-son / step-granddaughter)
  • the spouse or minor and unmarried descendant of the ethnic repatriate who, for legal reasons, cannot be included in the notification of admission by the repatriate

However, these persons do not acquire German citizenship, but rather reside in the Federal Republic of Germany under the law on foreigners .

Anyone wishing to be recognized as a late repatriate, spouse of a late repatriate or descendant of a late repatriate in Germany must enter the country with a notice of admission or inclusion . He gets this if he proves his German nationality by means of a formal written admission procedure .

Spätaussiedler is usually a German national who left the republics of the former Soviet Union after December 31, 1992 by way of the admission procedure and took up permanent residence within six months within the scope of the law […].

The following requirements can be identified from the legal definition:

German ethnicity

The definition of German ethnicity can be found in Section 6 BVFG. It is divided into paragraph 1 (people born before December 31, 1923) and paragraph 2 (people born after January 1, 1924).

Paragraph 1 comes in its main features from a circular of the Reich Ministry of the Interior dated March 29, 1939 (RMBliV, p. 783) and was only amended by the introduction of the BVFG to include the passage (people of foreign blood, especially Jews, are never members of the German people, even if they have previously designated themselves as such.) shortened. The fact that part of this definition stems from National Socialist ideology is always a reason for criticism and tension in connection with the discussion of being German, for which this legal definition is often used.

Paragraph 2, which today applies to the far larger number of people (> 99%), is divided into three areas:

Descent from a German national

It should be noted that this is purely physical descent. I.e. Adopted children or people who cannot prove their descent due to a lack of documents usually lack the descent from a German national (No. 2.1 BVFG-VwV on Section 6).

The person to whom the parentage is referred must be a German national i. S. d. Paragraph 1, according to the prevailing opinion, this is certainly assumed for people

  • who were demonstrably exposed to expulsion measures against the German minority due to their German ethnicity in the period 1941–1956 (e.g. expulsion or members of a labor army ),
  • who were at least 18 years old in June 1941 and had themselves entered in a civil status document with German nationality (e.g. in the birth certificate of a child).
  • which, based on an overall view, can only be assigned to German ethnicity and not to any other

Confession to the German nationality

According to the text of the law, the “Confession to the German Volkstum” can

  • through an express declaration of nationality or
  • familiarization of the German language or
  • be proven by demonstrating a particularly good command of the German language (usually language skills level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ).

It is not clear whether the above-mentioned avowal options form a ranking or are to be seen as equivalent and therefore the basis for an intense dispute between legal scholars and public administration . A clarifying ruling from the Federal Administrative Court is still pending.

linguistic proficiency

The repatriate applicant is invited to the German diplomatic mission and tested there by the competent administrative authority. The extent to which language tests from other organizations are also sufficient to prove language skills is also not clearly regulated. However, various language tests are recognized according to level B1 of the common European reference framework for languages, as the legislator has explicitly mentioned this language level in Section 6 (2) BVFG.

Spouses and adult descendants of the ethnic German repatriate who are to be included in his admission notification must also demonstrate a basic knowledge of the German language. Lt. Administrative regulation corresponds to level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Reference date regulation, residence criterion and entry by way of the admission procedure

Spätaussiedler is if he [...]

  • since May 8, 1945 or
  • after displacement or the displacement of one of the parents since March 31, 1952 or
  • since his birth, if he was born before January 1, 1993 and is descended from a person who fulfills the reference date requirement of May 8, 1945 under number 1 or March 31, 1952 under number 2, unless parents or forefathers moved to the resettlement areas only after March 31, 1952, had their place of residence in the resettlement areas.

So only those who were born before January 1st, 1993 can become ethnic repatriates. According to the Cologne Administrative Court, this seemingly arbitrary limit does not constitute unconstitutional unequal treatment compared to those born after 1993. The legislature is not barred from drawing this boundary by Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law.

For people who already have their main place of residence in Germany, admission to hardship can only be considered for a foreseeable period (3–12 months) after entry (special requirements must be asserted, e.g. refugee from the war in Ukraine which justify why it was impossible for the applicant to wait for the procedure in the region of origin).

After this period, recognition as a repatriate is no longer possible because the criterion of § 4 BVFG is missing (no entry within the framework of the admission procedure with admission or inclusion notification).

Persons who have taken their main residence in a country that is not listed in Section 4 BVFG can also contact the above mentioned. Criterion is missing.

Friedland camp

Today, all ethnic German repatriates entering the Federal Republic of Germany are initially admitted to the Friedland transit camp . They are registered there and distributed to the individual federal states according to the Königstein key .

Exclusions according to § 5 BVFG

The legal status of a repatriate or a spouse or descendant to be included (Section 27 (2) BVFG) can be excluded if the applicant fulfills an exclusion status according to Section 5 BVFG. Depending on the fact of the exclusion that has been met, this can also have a blocking effect on the issue of an entry permit, so that admission by the BVFG is no longer possible.

According to § 5 BVFG, the legal status as a repatriate does not acquire, who:

  • has made a significant contribution to the National Socialist or other tyranny in the resettlement areas,
  • Has violated the principles of humanity or the rule of law in the resettlement areas through his behavior,
  • has seriously abused his position in the resettlement areas for his own advantage or to the disadvantage of others,
  • has committed an unlawful act that would be regarded as a crime in Germany within the meaning of Section 12 (1) of the Criminal Code, unless the act is statute-barred under German law or a conviction is to be repaid under the Federal Central Register Act, or
  • according to a conclusion justified by factual evidence,
    • belonged or belonged to an association that supports terrorism, or supported or supported such an association,
    • has participated in acts of violence or has publicly called for or threatened the use of force in the pursuit of political goals, or
    • Pursued or supported or pursued or supported efforts which are directed against the free democratic basic order, the existence or the security of the federal government or a state or the idea of ​​international understanding,
  • unless he proves that he has turned away from the previous actions, or
  • leave the resettlement areas because of the threat of criminal prosecution due to a criminal offense or
  • has exercised a function in the resettlement areas that was usually considered to be important for the maintenance of the communist system of rule or was due to the circumstances of the individual case, or
  • who has lived in a household with the holder of such a function for at least three years.

Reopening of irrevocably closed proceedings

The current legal situation also opens up the possibility that legally concluded (incontestable) proceedings can now be resumed without notice. Legally, this is made possible by an amendment to Section 27 (3) BVG, whereby the normally applicable 3-month period in Section 51 (3) of the Administrative Procedure Act is suspended.

Subsequent inclusion

The subsequent inclusion of spouses or descendants who remained in the area of ​​origin in the notification of admission of a repatriate living in Germany is now also possible without prior presentation of a hardship case. There is no need to leave the country together.

It happens more and more often that descendants were born after the departure of the ethnic German repatriate living in Germany and are therefore no longer considered to have remained in the area of ​​origin , so that they can only find admission in Germany according to immigration law . In practice, this formulation of the legislature often leads to contradictions. In the case of a repatriate who came to Germany in 2004 and now wants to subsequently include two grandchildren who were born in 2003 and 2005, the grandchild born in 2003 receives the privileged status of Section 7 (2) BVFG as well as German citizenship and the child born in 2005 does not , as this is not considered to have remained in the area of ​​origin and it resides in Germany according to immigration law.

Rights and duties of repatriates

In principle, all civil rights apply to repatriates and ethnic repatriates. Due to the Residence Allocation Act, ethnic repatriates were previously restricted in their freedom of movement after entering Germany if they could not earn their living by doing their own work. The background to this measure was the fact that many ethnic German repatriates took up residence where family members were already living, which led to a high proportion of repatriates in the communities concerned and threatened to overwhelm the efficiency of these communities. Due to the steady decline in the number of emigrants arriving over the years, the law became largely obsolete and was therefore repealed on December 31, 2009.

Some municipalities see "Aussiedler" or "Spätaussiedlerkontingenten" in the allocation of building sites an instrument to keep the proportion of Aussiedler and Spätaussiedler in the population of the municipality concerned (for example the municipality of Holdorf ). Such regulations can, however , be repealed by the local supervisory authority due to a violation of Article 3 (3) of the Basic Law , since unequal treatment of people who were born in the “wrong place” constitutes forbidden discrimination based on the origin of a person and is unconstitutional.

With regard to the Aliens Pension Act , it is of central importance whether someone has entered Germany as a resettler or a late repatriate or as a member of a resettler or a late repatriate: Only people who had the status of emigrant or late repatriate upon arrival are entitled to the Foreign pension law, i.e. a higher old-age pension than mere relatives acquired.

Even young men with the status of repatriates or ethnic German repatriates were subject to conscription under Article 12a of the Basic Law until this was suspended on July 1, 2011 as part of a Bundeswehr reform .

Countries of origin of the repatriates

The countries from which most of the 5,613 repatriates came in 2014 were

  • with 2,704 the Russian Federation
  • with 2,069 the Republic of Kazakhstan
  • and at 532 Ukraine.

history

German citizens who had remained in the former German areas east of the Oder and Neisse rivers after 1945 and their descendants initially formed the largest group among the resettlers. Due to the mostly still existing German citizenship, this group had the right to freedom of movement in the Federal Republic according to Art. 11 of the Basic Law, so that they did not need an entry permit.

In 1990, a formal admission procedure was introduced in which those wishing to enter the country had to prove that they had met the admission criteria in their country of origin. A language test has been required since 1997, and for spouses and children since 2005.

Family from Siberia , June 1988 in the Friedland camp

The descendants of German emigrants who settled in Eastern Europe ( Romania , Hungary , Ukraine and above all Russia ) before the 20th century could apply since the 1960s (and on the grounds of their German ethnicity and / or family reunification) immigrate to the Federal Republic , provided that they have been permitted to leave the country in question. Because before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it was associated with great difficulties and decades of waiting and reprisals until one was granted an exit permit in a socialist country of the Soviet Union, even if German authorities indicated that they were ready to accept them.

Many German ethnic groups came to Germany during World War II or had done military service for Germany outside of Germany. They were often defamed as " booty Germans " by "Reichsdeutsche" , mainly because they were not classified as "real Germans" because of their supposedly "strange", " foreign " language use. Other members of the German people were deported to the Siberian or Asian areas of the Soviet Union immediately after the war - as a reparation measure to compensate for the costs that the USSR had incurred in the fight against Germany - and had to work as slave labor in factories or mines. As repatriates or late repatriates, they, too, were insulted by some long-established residents of the Federal Republic of Germany as “prey Germans” after they moved to Germany.

The term Spätaussiedler was originally an unofficial term for emigrants who had succeeded in leaving the Federal Republic of Germany from the end of the 1970s to December 31, 1992, or who had been allowed to leave the country in exchange for German “compensation payments”.

Year (s) (Late) emigrants and their family members
1950-1959 438.225
1960-1969 221,516
1970-1979 355.381
1980-1989 984.087
1990 (*) 397.073
1991 221.995
1992 230,565
1993 218,888
1994 222,591
1995 217,898
1996 177.751
1997 134.419
1998 103.080
1999 104,916
2000 95,615
2001 98,484
2002 91,418
2003 72,885
2004 59.093
2005 35,522
2006 7,742
2007 5,792
2008 4,362
2009 3,360
2010 2,350
2011 2.148
2012 1,817
2013 2,427
2014 5,649
2015 6.118
2016 6,588
2017 7.134
2018 7.128
(*) 1990: West Germany.
Source for 1950–1989: bpb;
Source for 1990–2011: bpb;
Source for 1998–2010: statista.de;
Source for 2008–2016: BVA;
Source for 2017: Spiegel Online.
Source for 2018: BMI

From 1950 to 2005 came to the Federal Republic of Germany as repatriates or late repatriates:

  • from the Soviet Union and successor states : 2,334,334
  • from Poland: 1,444,847 (the Polish diaspora in Germany has a total of 2.5 million members)
  • from Romania: 430.101
  • from Czechoslovakia and successor states: 105,095
  • from Yugoslavia and successor states: 90,378
  • from other areas: 55,716
  • from Hungary: 21,411

In the period from 1951 to 1987, around 1.4 million repatriates moved to the Federal Republic, most of them from Poland and Romania. Their integration went largely smoothly. With the opening of the Eastern Bloc since Mikhail Gorbachev , the situation changed drastically: Since 1988 the number of repatriates has skyrocketed and reached a peak in 1990 with almost 400,000 people. Since then, the influx of repatriates and ethnic repatriates has steadily declined. While the proportion of people from Poland and Romania fell rapidly due to the democratization processes and the improvement in the minority situation, the proportion of Germans from Russia and Kazakhstan has risen sharply since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the ease with which it was possible to leave the country.

The emigration concerns of German and ethnic Germans in Eastern and Southeastern Europe were funded bilaterally, from 1986 also within the framework of the CSCE by the Resettlement Working Group in the Legal Department of the Foreign Office in Bonn .

In the course of family reunification, some Germans from the above-mentioned countries also came to the GDR . Their number was not officially recorded by the local authorities, however, as they were not classified as Germans but as citizens of their country of origin, i.e. as immigrant foreigners .

When classifying people as repatriates, it was assumed ex officio for the sake of simplicity that someone who came to Germany as a German from a (formerly) communist country had been “expelled” from his home country as “ethnically persecuted” (namely even if he wanted to leave the country himself without pressure from the authorities or the majority of the population or if completely different factors than the discrimination as a German became effective as push factors ). During the deliberations on the Consequences of War Adjustment Act , which came into force on January 1, 1993, the majority of the Bundestag came to the conclusion that the political situation in Romania and Poland had normalized to such an extent that the German minorities would no longer be persecuted there. Thus, only those members of the German minority would have the right to recognition as displaced persons who could individually prove that they had been persecuted and discriminated against because of their nationality. With regard to members of the German people from the successor states of the Soviet Union, however, it was maintained after 1992 that every member of the German people as such was exposed to ethnic persecution in the area of ​​origin and was expelled from there.

After 1990, Germany experienced an increased influx of repatriates and ethnic German repatriates from Eastern Europe. In recent years this influx has decreased. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), 7,500 repatriates came to Germany in 2005 , in 2012 only 1,817.

Using the microcensus , the Federal Statistical Office found that around 3.2 million immigrated (late) repatriates and family members who traveled with them lived in Germany in 2011, which meant that 71% of the approximately 4.5 million ethnic repatriates who immigrated from 1950 to 2011 still lived in Germany. The difference is mainly attributed to deaths and only to a small extent to emigration from Germany.

It was not until 2014 that the number rose again noticeably to 5,649 due to the change in the law. The Federal Office of Administration (BVA) also received 30,009 applications in 2014 , more than in the three previous years combined.

According to the historian Alfred Eisfeld , the reasons for the recent increase include the elimination of the family immigration ban and the fact that many Germans living in Kazakhstan no longer see any prospects for themselves there.

People who want to resettle to Germany as late repatriates today and in the future must prove that they belong to the German people by having a sufficient command of the German language.

The focus on the German language skills of those wishing to leave the country was justified in 2001 during the deliberations on the new version of § 6 BVFG in the German Bundestag : "Spätaussiedler would hardly be perceived as (former) ethnic Germans if they could be recognized as such without knowledge of German; in addition, their integration would be made more difficult. In particular, a lack of knowledge of German is increasingly turning out to be a major obstacle for the German repatriate families to integrate into Germany . This creates burdens for the social budget , which will be difficult to explain, especially if recognition as a repatriate is to be possible despite a lack of knowledge of German. "

According to censuses in the Soviet Union, the proportion of those who stated German as their mother tongue among those who were registered as “Germans” fell from 66.8 percent in 1970 to 48.7 percent in 1989. In a study by the Friedrich- In 2003, Ebert Foundation stated that 64 percent of ethnic German repatriates admitted to Germany stated that they had not spoken German at home in their country of origin.

In more recent sociolinguistic studies, the thesis is advocated that “someone who does not master the German language on a native level [...] will find it difficult to hold onto his claimed German identity without questioning.” However, there is also contradiction to the thesis , only those are members of the German people who were taught the German language by their parents.

In order to motivate people of German origin , especially in Poland and Russia, to stay in their current residential areas, the federal government has developed a system of retention aids on the basis of Section 96 BVFG .

Integration into German society

With a study published in 2007, the Schader Foundation found out about the integration of ethnic German repatriates :

  "[...]

  • The vast majority of Germans from Russia who moved to Germany were socialized in a Soviet environment . Only the oldest generation still knows marriages and neighborhoods of purely German origin, as they were common up to the Second World War , but were then broken up. Culture and way of life were no longer based on an image of Germany, even if it was outdated and stagnant, but on contemporary culture and consumption patterns of Soviet societies.
  • The main motive for moving to Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union was the chance to secure a better future for yourself and your children in a wealthy country.
  • The emigration to Germany was often enforced against resistance from members of the own family. Older children and adolescents in particular did not want to give up their old context in life and the peer groups within which they moved.
  • The stigmatization of people of German origin as 'Germans' or even pejorative as ' Nazis ' in the Soviet Union turned into stigmatization as ' Russians ' after they moved to the Federal Republic of Germany . This verbal expression of exclusion was adopted by the younger generation in particular as a characteristic of their own identity formation and self-delimitation, and it still causes considerable integration problems.
  • The self-chosen exclusion in the host country, which is brought to the same extent from outside and has an impact on many male, young resettlers in particular, is closely related to the time they moved to Germany before or after the mid-1990s. The early repatriate groups still had knowledge of the German language and culture and found favorable labor market conditions in the Federal Republic; their structural integration was quick and successful. Among the later repatriate groups, only a few people had knowledge of the German language; the cultural socialization was entirely Russian or Soviet. The worsened labor market situation in Germany and reduced funds z. B. for language courses made integration in the host country much more difficult. For these people, the history of migration is therefore in many cases a history of social decline. "

A major reason for the stigmatization mentioned is the opinion of many long-established Germans that one is only "German" if one has a sufficient command of the German language. According to a study presented at the 47th Congress of the German Society for Psychology in Bremen in 2010, this is the opinion of 96.6 percent of all autochthonous Germans.

At a specialist conference of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on the subject of “Migration and Integration”, which took place in March 2003, it was found that ethnic repatriates are more often affected and threatened by unemployment . “Although […] around two thirds of ethnic German repatriates have several or even many years of professional experience, very few can bring their knowledge to bear in Germany. Professional integration often fails due to a lack of German and IT skills. Only around 21 percent of those surveyed rate their language skills as advanced or very good. 36 percent of the repatriates surveyed stated that they had already spoken German at home. "

The thesis that adolescents and young adults from the repatriate environment are more susceptible to drug use and crime is controversial.

The “Landsmannschaft der Germans aus Russia” emphasizes the opportunities that the immigration of Russian Germans to Germany brings with it, “because they bring young, large and hard-working people into a society that is increasingly facing the risk of aging, and because they Certainly not having to hide with their skills and motivation. "

The then Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, commented on the situation in 2006 with the words: “The noticeable increase in accompanying family members with insufficient language skills and the difficult situation on the job market in Germany are causing us more trouble today than was previously the case. The majority of the resettlers try to integrate themselves by learning German and accepting jobs that are often far below their personal qualifications. […] Unfortunately we have some problems with some of the younger male generation - even if I suspect that the representations in the media are often exaggerated and one-sided. [...] We must counteract this problem with all our strength and together as well as possible and wherever we can. "

In Russia, the situation is viewed more skeptically: “Today there are around 2.5 million citizens living in the Federal Republic of Germany who immigrated as repatriates, late repatriates or their relatives from the states of the former Soviet Union. For many of them, the dream of acceptance and a better life has not materialized in Germany either. ”In the context of this Russian criticism, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a state“ program for the permanent repatriation of people living abroad with a Russian mother tongue the territory of the Russian Federation ”(short name: 'Country People Program'). Its aim is to encourage the return of 300,000 people with Russian mother tongue from the CIS , Israel , the USA and Germany (late repatriates, Jewish immigrants and Russian citizens) (by 2009).

Of the ethnic repatriate group, 80 percent and more successfully completed the integration courses they attended (the average for all immigrant groups is around 70 percent). On average in 2007, 23,542 ethnic German repatriates were registered as unemployed (in 1998 116,871 ethnic German repatriates were registered as unemployed; in 1999 their number was 92,054). While 218,708 German immigrants from the Russian Federation came to Germany between 2000 and 2006, 13,661 repatriates returned to Russia during this period.

So-called special courses for repatriates have been set up in numerous federal states , although the target groups and admission requirements differ depending on the country. The courses are usually based on foreign secondary qualifications with a duration of at least ten years and lead to the general higher education entrance qualification or the technical college entrance qualification in two years . Additional funding for BAföG is provided, for example, by the Otto Benecke Foundation e. V.

Eisfeld estimates that the integration of ethnic German repatriates "largely succeeded", although for many of those affected it meant a social decline , especially if they did not receive recognition of their university degrees .

Group of people from the former Soviet Union

Many Germans from the former USSR also brought non-German family members with them. At the beginning of the wave of immigration up to the beginning of the 1990s, the proportion of those in the families who felt they belonged to German culture and spoke German predominated, with the last wave of immigration predominantly people with no or little knowledge of the German language came.

In some German cities, areas have now emerged in which Russian is predominantly spoken (also by people of German origin). The people who live there are Germans from Russia, ethnic Russians, members of other peoples of the former Soviet Union as well as Jewish immigrants from Russia (mostly quota refugees). Several independent Russian-language newspapers, for example the daily Rheinskaja Gazeta or the weekly Russkaja Germanija appear in Germany today; they meet the continuing need of many immigrants to cultivate the Russian language and culture in Germany as well.

A German-Russian mixed language , which is sometimes spoken among these immigrant groups, is currently emerging. As a rule, multilingualism is maintained to different degrees , as is the case with the Russian mennonites with the parallel use of German , Russian and Plautdietsch .

However, a largely neglected but relatively large middle class of Germans from Russia has developed who do not value being viewed as "hyphenated Germans" and who simply want to be Germans in Germany. For example, there are German students from Russia who speak accent-free German at a level necessary for studying, because they either came to Germany before starting school or were even born here.

The often blanket negative image of Germans from Russia can be explained by the fact that when many people use the term “Germans from Russia” they do not think of those who are now not only integrated, but fully assimilated , so that one does not get the idea of ​​them or their ancestors might have immigrated. Many Germans from the former Soviet Union attach great importance to their German ancestry and perceive the title "Russian" as a gross insult.

A relatively new trend is that Germans from Russia cultivate and use the specific socialization experiences that they or their ancestors had in the former Soviet Union in Germany. On the one hand, this applies to their knowledge of Russian, which can constitute a valuable part of their human capital , and, on the other hand, to cultural traditions that they have acquired in a Russian-dominated environment and knowledge of the country.

In March 2017, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) organized a conference on the subject of "Resettlement, Resettlement, Political Participation - Germans from Russia in interaction with Russian-speaking groups in Germany". The Federal Office thus assumes that there are fundamental similarities between the various groups of “post-Soviet migrants”. The background to the convening of the conference was the accusation that many emigrants were part of “ Putin's fifth column ” in Germany, who were particularly easy to use in the context of his “hybrid war” because they had a preference for reports in Russian.

Little is known that according to the census on May 9, 2011, there were around 570,000 people in the Federal Republic of Germany who were both German and Russian citizens. These people, whom one does not offend if one truthfully calls them “Russians”, were not just repatriates or ethnic German repatriates. The first Russian law on citizenship was passed in November 1991, stipulating that persons who were permanent residents of the Russian Federation before the law came into force in February 1992 would automatically qualify as citizens of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) recognized. These persons lose their citizenship (except through death) only by expressly resigning from it, which many ethnic German repatriates did not do after they moved to Germany. Many consider expatriation to be too costly and (d) appreciate being able to travel to Russia more easily with their Russian passport. In addition to the number of citizens of Germany and Russia, there are also people with two nationalities who have come to Germany from a successor state of the Soviet Union other than Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was the task of Russia's policy to “protect its citizens”, including abroad.

Waldemar Eisenbraun, chairman of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e. V., claims that "the political preferences of Germans from Russia [...] hardly differed from those of the majority of the population". For the "Handelsblatt", however, it is clear that "[over] decades [...] Russian Germans and the CDU / CSU have belonged together inseparably". Before the refugee crisis , two out of three emigrants and ethnic German repatriates who were eligible to vote voted for the CDU or the CSU. After that, it was not the vote of the Left, the Greens and the SPD, but that of the AfD that increased dramatically, especially among young Germans from Russia. Spiegel Online explains this widespread mistrust of established parties by stating that “Germany's own conservative values ​​are no longer in demand, the traditional family, the anchoring in the Christian faith, the maintenance of traditional customs”. Many Germans from Russia also take the view that “the refugees from the Arab region were welcomed in a more friendly manner and received public services that they had to fight hard for themselves”. In addition, “some in the Soviet Union have internalized xenophobic and Islamophobic attitudes; they willingly believe conspiracy theories that feed Russian media ”. A study by the Advisory Council of German Foundations for Migration and Integration on the party preferences of migrants published in October 2016 shows, however, that the (late) repatriates as a whole (i.e. not just the Russian-Germans) have come closer to the preferences of the population without a migration background. At that time, repatriates and ethnic German repatriates were clearly overrepresented among the voters of the left, which makes the thesis that Germans from Russia are generally more “right-wing” appear questionable.

In the opinion of Hartmut Koschyk , the Federal Government Commissioner for Resettler Issues and National Minorities , the integration of Germans from Russia into West German society has been successful. “Especially for the Russian Germans, who were often treated as foreigners in their ancestral homeland because of their German roots, but also did not believe they would feel at home in Germany because they were considered foreign because of their Russian accent or their origin from Russia, the Ask about your own home location in a special way. In many cases, the Christian faith, especially for the repatriates, is of importance for establishing identity. The secular state creates no meaning in life; it does not satisfy man's transcendental needs. It is the late repatriates who, due to their predominantly Christian roots and lived religiosity, also set an example for their German-born compatriots. "

Ernst Strohmaier, Managing Director of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e. V., confirms that most Germans from Russia are well integrated into German society. He criticizes, however, that after the 1990s the work with problem groups among Russian-German young people was neglected. Without “catching up integration”, a parallel society could well emerge in which a minority of Russian-Germans unite with people of real Russian descent in Germany. A connection of these Germans from Russia to right-wing extremists who are supported by Russia and "Russian Mafia groups" is not excluded.

Group of people from Poland

Belong to the group of Germans from Poland

  • originally ethnic Polish people who emigrated to the area of ​​today's Federal Republic of Germany before 1945 and were naturalized here, provided they were not already German citizens at the time of their relocation (these people, however, did not belong to the ethnic repatriates),
  • ethnic Germans who emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany after 1945 from the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line that belonged to the German Reich in 1937 (German citizens)
  • ethnic Germans who immigrated from Gdansk after the Second World War or from areas that belonged to Poland before 1945 (German people),
  • ethnic Poles , who were recognized as a national minority in the German Reich in 1937 and had German citizenship , as well as the descendants of the named persons.

When they moved to the Federal Republic of Germany, ethnic Poles were also considered Germans within the meaning of the Basic Law and thus as late repatriates and not as immigrant foreigners if they or their ancestors had German citizenship before 1937. Since the term "German in the sense of the Basic Law", as it was formulated in 1949, is based on the borders of the German Reich of 1937, it is assumed that this nationality has theoretically never expired.

Use of language

In many statistics “emigrants” are listed as a category. The strikingly low numbers are explained by the fact that "resettlers" are only listed as such in the official statistics of the federal government until they have been granted German citizenship. Colloquially, however, a resettled person (who already has German citizenship ) is often still referred to as a resettler.

Refugees and displaced persons

Germans who were expelled from the former eastern German territories , which were then under foreign administration after the Second World War (1945–1948), are referred to as expellees .

Both Refugees (1944-45), displaced or in the parlance of the GDR " settlers " (1945-48) and emigrants (1957-1992) are as expellees called. Until 1992 the repatriates were also part of the group of expellees. Resettlers who come from the historic German eastern areas were already in possession of German citizenship, as either their ancestors or they themselves were citizens of the German Reich (area status December 31, 1937) .

Russian Germans, Germans from Russia, German Russians

The meaning of the term “Russian Germans”, which used to refer to repatriates and ethnic Germans from the successor states of the Soviet Union and those still living there, is increasingly narrowing to those Germans who stay permanently in the successor states of the Soviet Union, especially in Russia, while the Today, people who have resettled mainly refer to themselves as "Germans from Russia". The self-designation of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e. V. (LmDR) .

The increasing use of the term "German Russians" for repatriates repatriates from the former Soviet Union as a foreign name , however, is misleading, if not to be assumed that it is for the people concerned to Russians IN QUESTION who want to become German. In fact, from an official German point of view, repatriates and ethnic German repatriates were already considered Germans before they moved to Germany and must therefore also be classified as Germans if they talk to each other in Russian and have a better command of this language than German (→  Russian-speaking population groups in Germany ).

In a text published by Spiegel Online in 2016 about “Russian-speaking citizens and Russians living in Germany”, the words “so-called Russian-Germans”, “German-Russians”, “Russian-speaking citizens” and “Russian-born” are used, although the terms appear to be referring to each other the same people should relate to. In the headline these are even counted among the "Russians". The article cites an English-language study “Russians in Germany” published by a Russian institute that was presented as critical of the Kremlin, which also refers to Germans from Russia (78 percent of the respondents were “German resettlers” ). It is noted in the article that, as the study claims to have found, 44 percent of the reference group “understand themselves as German”.

Migrants

Jannis Panagiotidis advocates the thesis that all immigrants from the successor states of the Soviet Union are “ migrants ” to whom the investigation methods that are customary for other migrant groups (especially from the Mediterranean region) must be applied. Both “inconspicuous integration [as well as] persistent segregation […] describe”, says Panagiotidis, “the reality of different milieus within the large group of 'Russian-German repatriates'. This large group is necessarily heterogeneous in view of its size, [the] different requirements that individual people have brought with them and the diversity of socio-economic life situations. With this heterogeneity, which will increase in the second generation and the third generation, the Russian Germans are now first and foremost part of the diverse German migration society. The use of the Russian language and the consumption of Russian food have just as much place here as the assimilation into the West German middle class with simultaneous more or less pronounced awareness of one's own 'different' origins, or also the 'segmented integration' in religiously defined communities. Just as with other migrant groups, the Russian Germans always have to take this diversity of experiences and life plans into account in order to avoid inaccurate, homogenizing interpretations of their present. ”In general, Panagiotidis and others warn against“ groupism ”, i. H. before the frequently encountered thought pattern: "A certain person (does not) belong to the social group x and therefore (does not) have the property y".

The designation of Germans from Russia as “migrants” is met with opposition from ethnic German officials. Dietmar Schulmeister, state chairman of the country team of Germans from Russia in North Rhine-Westphalia, says: "Russian Germans are not migrants". The " Siebenbürgische Zeitung " justifies the rejection of the designation of repatriates and ethnic German repatriates as "migrants" with the fact that the connotation " foreigners " is almost inevitably associated with the term . The essential characteristic of a person of German ethnicity is the "cultural self-image as a German" already in his country of origin. In the case of repatriates and ethnic German repatriates, the process of moving across national borders is more comparable to the return of Germans abroad to Germany, which is also not regarded as “migration”. The newspaper quotes a statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Aussiedler and Spätaussiedler are Germans and as such are to be distinguished from foreign migrants".

International regulations on civil rights for descendants of the state people

There are laws in many other countries for the entry of people who live abroad as descendants of their own national people (as an ethnic minority ) and who, after entering the country , acquire the right to participate in the rights ( civil rights ) exclusively available to citizens of the country of entry . For example, Greece passed a law that allowed people of Greek origin from the former Soviet Union to resettle in Greece. Since then, several hundred thousand ex-Soviet citizens of Greek origin, mainly from Georgia , Ukraine and Kazakhstan , have emigrated to Greece. Another example are the Finnish-born inhabitants of the Russian Ingrian country . Similar laws exist in Japan and Estonia .

A special case is the aliyah (the entry of Jews is to Israel) because in this case the category "religion" inextricably linked to that of the "ethnicity" is linked. The Jews from the former Soviet Union were considered an ethnic minority in their country of origin.

Literature and film

  • Victor Dönninghaus , Jannis Panagiotidis, Hans-Christian Petersen (eds.): Beyond the "ethnic group". New perspectives on Russian Germans between Russia, Germany and America (=  writings of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe , Volume 68). De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-050141-4 .
  • Walter Fr. Schleser : Repatriation, resettlement and family reunification of Germans from Eastern and Southeastern Europe . Reprint from Königsteiner Studien, Heft I and II 1984; DNB .
  • Alfred Eisfeld: The Russian Germans . 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 3-784-42382-5 .
  • Heinz Ingenhorst: The Russian Germans - Aussiedler between tradition and modernity , Frankfurt am Main 1997.
  • Wilfried Heller , Hans-Joachim Bürkner, Hans-Jürgen Hofmann: Migration, segregation and integration of repatriates - causes, connections and problems. In: Erlanger Forschungen, Series A, Geisteswissenschaften, 2002, Volume 95, pp. 79-108.
  • Ferdinand Stoll: Kazakh Germans. Migration strategies of Kazakh Germans in the transition from ethnic to transnational migration - from the perspective of Kazakhstan. Kisslegg 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-023812-3 .
  • Falk Blask, Belinda Bindig, Franck Gelhausen (eds.): I'm packing my suitcase. An ethnological search for traces of people emigrating from the East-West and late resettlers. Ringbuch Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-941561-01-4 .
  • Andrzej Klamt: “ Podzielona Klasa - The divided class ”. - The German-Polish Documentary by Andrzej Klamt tells the story of Silesian repatriates in the 1970s using the example of the filmmaker's primary school class. Klamt goes in search of his former classmates in Bytom, Poland (formerly Beuthen), half of whom stayed in communist Poland and the other half of whom emigrated to West Germany. and Eastern Europe. ( More information )
  • Alexandra Tobor : There are four Poles in the car. Teutonic adventures. Ullstein, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-548-28374-6 . - The novel describes the migration from Poland to the Federal Republic from the perspective of a daughter of ethnic repatriates.

See also

literature

  • Katrin Zempel-Bley: First we were fascists, then we were Russians. How being different prevents integration . In: Kulturland Oldenburg. Journal of the Oldenburg Landscape , issue 4/2015, pp. 10–15 ( online ).

Web links

Wiktionary: Aussiedler  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Remarks

  1. ^ Susanne Worbs, Eva Bund, Martin Kohls, Christian Babka von Gostomski: (Spät-) Aussiedler in Deutschland. An analysis of current data and research results. In: Research Report 20th Federal Office for Migration and Refugees , 2013, p. 7 , accessed on May 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ These persons of German nationality or nationality are legally defined in Section 1 (2) No. 3 BVFG as “[displaced persons who] after the general expulsion measures were completed before July 1, 1990 or afterwards by way of the admission procedure before January 1 1993 left or is leaving the German eastern territories formerly under foreign administration , Danzig , Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the former Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania or China, unless he, without having been expelled from these areas and having returned there by March 31, 1952, after establishing a residence in these areas on May 8, 1945 (Aussiedler) ”.
  3. ↑ Cf. Ines Graudenz / Regina Römhild (Hrsg.): Forschungsfeld Aussiedler: Views from Germany (= European Migration Research ; Vol. 1), Lang, 1996, ISBN 3-631-30003-4 , p. 37.
  4. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior , 2011. Quoted from: Susanne Worbs, Eva Bund, Martin Kohls, Christian Babka von Gostomski: (Spät-) Aussiedler in Deutschland. An analysis of current data and research results. In: Research report of the 20th Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 2013, p. 18 , accessed on May 7, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Family reunification of ethnic repatriates facilitated by law. Federation of Displaced Persons, September 17, 2013, accessed on January 9, 2018 .
  6. ^ Collection of the resolutions released for publication of the 185th meeting of the Standing Conference of Interior Ministers and Senators of the Länder on December 7, 2007 in Berlin (December 10, 2007) .
  7. ↑ See age structure (share) in the Federal Office of Administration - The central service provider of the federal government: Spätaussiedler and their relatives - 2014 annual statistics ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ kicked 10. BVFGÄndG on 09.14.2013 in force - reforming the Federal Law (BVFG) , notification of the BVA of 2 October 2013 ( Memento of 22 December 2015, Internet Archive ).
  9. ↑ BVFG-VwV 1.3 on § 27, cf. OVG North Rhine-Westphalia of October 26, 2005 - 2 A 980/05; a. A. VG Cologne from January 20, 2005 - 13 K 2018/03.
  10. ^ VG Köln, judgment of 10 September 2013, Az. 7 K 6824/12
  11. ↑ Facilitated procedures for repatriate applicants from eastern Ukraine. (No longer available online.) Federal Office of Administration, July 15, 2014, archived from the original on December 22, 2015 ; accessed on December 30, 2015 .
  12. ↑ The history of the border transit camp. In: Grenzübergangslager-friedland.niedersachsen.de. Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Heike Klovert, Thies Schnack: Spätaussiedler in Friedland: Heimkehr in die Fremde. In: Spiegel Online. February 5, 2017, accessed January 14, 2018 .
  14. ↑ New version of the law on the determination of a temporary place of residence for ethnic repatriates in the version of the announcement of 10 August 2005 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2474 )
  15. ↑ Alwin Schröder: Die Russen von Cloppenburg , Spiegel Online from April 1, 2005.
  16. ↑ decision letter 5/2010, ISSN  1869-1803
  17. ↑ Small question from MP Peter Ritter (Die Linke) on the State Regulations on the Assignment of Spätaussiedler (AusZuwLVO), State Parliament Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Drs. 5/3242 of February 23, 2010 .
  18. ↑ Minutes No. 02/2008 on the meeting of the Land and Economic Committee of the municipality of Holdorf on Monday, April 14, 2008. Additions to Minutes No. 01/2008 of March 31, 2008, Item 4 ( Memento of January 11 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 359 kB)
  19. ↑ a b Federal Office of Administration - The central service provider of the federal government: Spätaussiedler and their relatives - 2014 annual statistics ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Seifert: History of immigration to Germany after 1950. Federal Agency for Civic Education , May 31, 2012, accessed on January 21, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Wolfgang Seifert: History of Immigration to Germany after 1950. Federal Agency for Civic Education, May 31, 2012, accessed on January 14, 2018 . Table.
  22. ↑ (Late) emigrants. Federal Agency for Civic Education, November 28, 2012, accessed on January 14, 2018 . Graph and table.
  23. ↑ Number of ethnic repatriates admitted to Germany in the period from 1998 to 2010. In: de.statista.com. Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Spätaussiedler and their relatives special statistics. Federal Office of Administration, archived from the original on January 15, 2018 ; accessed on January 14, 2018 .
  25. ↑ a b Germany The number of repatriates increases every year. In: Spiegel Online. January 14, 2018, accessed January 14, 2018 .
  26. ↑ The joy of every late repatriate arriving. Federal Government Commissioner for Resettlement Issues and National Minorities, Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), January 21, 2019, accessed on June 18, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Bavarian State Center for Political Education : 192.68.214.70 ( Memento from December 26, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  28. ↑ a b Lena Khuen-Belasi: Why Spätaussiedler in Germany sit between all chairs ( Memento from June 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Frankfurter Rundschau from September 27, 1999.
  29. ↑ Jörg Lau: We were a country of immigration , Zeit Online , June 8, 2006.
  30. ↑ a b Federal Agency for Civic Education: (Spät-) Aussiedler. The social situation in Germany , November 28, 2012.
  31. ^ A b Susanne Worbs, Eva Bund, Martin Kohls, Christian Babka von Gostomski: (Spät-) Aussiedler in Deutschland. An analysis of current data and research results. In: Forschungsbericht 20. BAMF, 2013, p. 35 , accessed on January 14, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Printed matter 14/6573 German Bundestag: Report of the members Günter Graf (Friesoythe), Hartmut Koschyk, Marieluise Beck (Bremen), Dr. Max Stadler and Ulla Jelpke (PDF; 86 kB).
  33. ^ Germans from Russia. History and present. An exhibition by the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland eV , W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2013, p. 56 f.
  34. ↑ Wolfgang Gärthe: Determination of qualifications and knowledge of migrants: Assessment procedures as the basis of integration plans , p. 32 (PDF; 253 kB).
  35. ↑ Verena Wecker: Language and identity in the context of the migration of Silesian repatriates to Germany . SASI issue 15, 2009, p. 99 ( Memento from January 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 939 kB).
  36. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: German “Bleibehilfen” for the minorities in the countries of origin , March 15, 2005.
  37. ^ Immigrants in rural areas - Research: Integration of Aussiedlers , Schader Foundation , 2007, accessed on August 24, 2014.
  38. ↑ Tatjana Radchenko / Débora Maehler: Still a foreigner or already a German? Factors influencing the self-assessment and external perception of migrants , University of Cologne, 2010.
  39. ↑ Wolfgang Gärthe: Determination of qualifications and knowledge of migrants: Assessment procedures as the basis of integration plans , p. 31 (PDF; 253 kB).
  40. ↑ Roland Preuß: Out of the taboo zone: Foreigners - Statistics say one thing, reality often shows the opposite . In: The Parliament . Edition 48/2008 of November 10, 2008 ( Memento of April 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  41. ↑ Leo Selensky / Eduard Kirschbaum / Alina Kirschbaum ( erziehungsberatung-regensburg.de ( memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )): Identity development and delinquency among young emigrants .
  42. ↑ Press conference in the Hessian state parliament on May 8, 2007 on the federal meeting of the “Landsmannschaft der Deutschen von Russ” in Wiesbaden. ( Memento from May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  43. ↑ The Russian Germans are building a bridge for us between Russia, Germany and Europe . Speech by Federal Minister Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble on the occasion of the commemoration of the compatriot of Germans from Russia on the 65th anniversary of the expulsion of Russian Germans on August 27, 2006 in Stuttgart. ( Memento from April 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  44. ↑ On the history of the Germans in Russia.
  45. ^ Albert Schmid: On the integration of repatriates . In: Christoph Bergner / Matthias Weber (eds.): Resettlers and minority policy in Germany. Balance sheet and perspectives . 2009, p. 77 f. (PDF; 8.2 MB).
  46. ^ Albert Schmid: On the integration of repatriates . In: Christoph Bergner / Matthias Weber (eds.): Resettlers and minority policy in Germany. Balance sheet and perspectives . 2009, p. 71 (PDF; 8.2 MB).
  47. ^ Albert Schmid: On the integration of repatriates . In: Christoph Bergner / Matthias Weber (eds.): Resettlers and minority policy in Germany. Balance sheet and perspectives . 2009, p. 73 (PDF; 8.2 MB).
  48. ^ Albert Schmid: On the integration of repatriates . In: Christoph Bergner / Matthias Weber (eds.): Resettlers and minority policy in Germany. Balance sheet and perspectives . 2009, p. 77 (PDF; 8.2 MB).
  49. ↑ Special courses to acquire the university entrance qualification ( Memento of November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Flyer (PDF; 107 kB).
  50. ^ Bavarian State Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs, Family and Women: Spätaussiedler - Migration and Integration ( Memento from April 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  51. ↑ Participation in life in the city. “Germans from Russia” - contact person and intermediary in Lohne , Nordwestzeitung from June 12, 2012.
  52. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Symposium of the Federal Agency for Civic Education on March 29 and 30, 2017 in Berlin / Germans from Russia interacting with Russian-speaking groups in Germany , March 27, 2017.
  53. ↑ On the term, see Jannis Panagiotidis: Post-Soviet Migrants in Germany. Perspectives on a heterogeneous "diaspora" , From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ), issue 11–12 / 2017, March 10, 2017.
  54. ^ Moritz Gathmann: Quo Vadis, German Russians? , ostpol.de, April 3, 2017
  55. ↑ Four million Germans have two passports , Zeit Online, April 10, 2014.
  56. ↑ Maria Nozhenko: nationality , bpb, July 1 of 2010.
  57. ↑ Christian Bangel: "The Russian Germans want to belong". Interview with Alfred Eisfeld , Zeit Online, February 4, 2016.
  58. ↑ a b Olga Silantjewa: The tip of the balance , Moscow German newspaper, April 17, 2017.
  59. ↑ Natalia Frumkina / Silvia Stöber: Bundestag election 2017 - How do the Russian Germans vote? faktenfinder.tagesschau.de , September 21, 2017
  60. ↑ New study shows why the AfD is so popular with young Russian Germans, orange.handelsblatt.com, July 31, 2017
  61. ↑ Jan Friedmann: Russian Germans in the AfD - Right shift in "Little Moscow" , Spiegel Online, September 9, 2017.
  62. ^ Jannis Panagiotidis: Post-Soviet migrants in Germany. Perspectives on a heterogeneous “diaspora” , APuZ 11–12 / 2017, March 10, 2017.
  63. ↑ "Resettlement, Home, Political Participation - Germans from Russia in interaction with Russian-speaking groups in Germany" , RussDeutsch - information portal of Russian Germans, March 30, 2017.
  64. ↑ Christian Kreutzer: How much does Moscow control the Russian Germans? Interview with Ernst Strohmaier , t-online.de, January 29, 2016.
  65. ^ Klaus Ziemer: The German minority in Poland after 1945. Berlin 1990, conference in the Evangelical Academy
  66. ↑ Christina Hebel: This is how Russians think in Germany , October 10, 2016.
  67. ↑ Boris Nentzow Foundation: Russians in Germany (October 2016).
  68. ↑ Jannis Panagiotidis: History of the Russian Germans from the mid-1980s , bpb, July 18, 2017.
  69. ↑ The term was coined in 2003 by the American Rogers Brubaker in his essay "Ethnicity without Groups"; see. the invitation to the “youth workshop 'Beyond the ethnic group' on the past and present of the Russian Germans” in Osnabrück on February 15 and 16, 2018 ( PDF ).
  70. ^ Victor Dönninghaus / Jannis Panagiotidis / Hans-Christian Petersen (eds.): Beyond the "ethnic group". New perspectives on the Russian Germans between Russia, Germany and America . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018.
  71. ↑ Rainer Lehni: German repatriates are not migrants , Transylvanian newspaper, April 5th 2011th