Global Immigration - Research Paper Example

Thus, Germany faces the challenge of handling an enormous burden of immigration influx, coming from the east – legal and illegal. The structure of population in this largest EU country incorporates over 10% of foreigners (among approximately 82 million residents), who do not possess German citizenship. As the postwar period was characterized by the rapid growth of economy, the country depended on labor of immigrant workers coming mainly from Southeastern and South Europe. Whereas a part of these gust workers went back to their homelands, many of them stayed in the country to build their future there.

Moreover, many Turkish immigrants also stroke roots in Germany, gradually turning it from a country accommodating and employing guest workers into a country with fixed and regulated immigration policy. According to Federal Statistical Service of Germany, percentage of EU-born immigrants who have come to the country since the postwar period is only about 25%. Thus, the majority is immigrants descending from other countries, with many of them being illegal immigrants and managing to stay in the host country only due to loopholes in German legislation.

Influx of immigrants is especially intense in the large cities of Germany like Berlin and other administrative centers, and the fact that many of them are illegal and unemployed poses essential difficulties. According to one of the main German newspapers, Der Spiegel, in the recent few years, the country has seen immense inflow of immigrants from Southeastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria and Romania, who come to large cities like Munich, Hamburg, Dortmund and Berlin and live jobless because of unemployment (Der Spiegel, 2013).

On the other hand, job market is quite open for immigrants, but people coming from that part of Europe have poor social, financial and educational backgrounds, and thus finding a job is a nearly impossible task for them. While German cities do their best to absorb and integrate the