arnold7
26.01.03, 13:38
Today most of the Volksdeutsch have returned to their ancestral land. There
are more than 14 million of them now living in Germany, which is almost 20%
of Germany's total population; most of them are virtually indistinguishable
from native-born Germans.
The ethnic Germans' right to return to Germany was established in Article 116
of the West German Basic Law, which guaranteed them German citizenship. More
precisely, it granted German citizenship to "descendents of Germans who lived
in territory that belonged to the German Reich on or before December 31,
1937." (The Economist 17 Aug. 1991) Another law passed in 1953 extended this
right to expellees and their descendents as well. But until the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990's, this was useless to most of
the Volksdeutsch, since those who hadn't been expelled or fled were not free
to leave the Eastern Bloc countries anyway. So, with the fall of the Soviet
Union, Germany found itself inundated with Volksdeutsch, taking Germany up on
its offer. From 1989 to 1997, 2.4 million ethnic Germans returned to Germany.
Given the numbers involved, this quickly developed into a massive Kopfschmerz
for Germany. Many of the returning Volksdeutsch, especially those from
Russia, required assistance in integrating into the population. In general,
many of the ethnic Germans tend to be very conservative, which is a stumbling
block in adjusting to their new lives; others no longer speak German. The
government has spent a considerable amount of money integrating these "other
Germans;" they receive language tuition, job training and money if they fail
to find work. However, it's all getting to be a bit much for Germany. In
1993, a law was passed ending immigration on the basis of ethnic German
ancestry starting in 2010 for those born outside of Germany after 1 January,
1993. Even so, as of early 1996, the German government was still approving
about a quarter of a million applications for German citizenship from ethnic
Germans annually (Christian Science Monitor 3 Apr. 1996).
