The Migratory Process: A Comparison of Australia and Germany

Abstract

Castles in 2013, and should be read in conjunction with Chapters, 11, 12 and 13 of the Fifth edition of The Age of Migration, which present broader dimensions of the process of immigrant settlement and incorporation into receiving societies. This text presents comparative case studies of the migratory process in two countries with very different traditions and institutional frameworks. Despite these differences, there are significant parallels in the development of migration and ethnic diversity, as will become apparent. This leads to the conjecture that the dynamics of the migratory process (as discussed theoretically in Chapters 2 and 3) can be powerful enough to override political structures, government policies and the intentions of the migrants. It does not mean, however, that these factors are unimportant: although settlement and ethnic group formation have taken place in both cases, they have done so under very different conditions. There have also been differing outcomes, which can be characterized as the formation of ethnic communities in the Australian case, as against ethnic minorities in Germany. The examples gain additional interest through the major changes in attitudes and policies towards migration in both countries since the mid-1990s. Australia and Germany: two opposing cases? Australia and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) have both experienced mass population movements since 1945. In both cases, foreign immigration started through the official recruitment of migrant workers. Early on, the areas of origin of migrants were partly the same. However, there the similarities seem to end, and the two countries are often seen as opposite poles on the migration spectrum. Australia is considered one of the classical countries of immigration: a new nation, which has been built through colonization and immigration over the last two centuries. Like the USA and Canada, it is a sparsely populated country, which has