Director of Munich-based Center of Domestic Politics (FRG) Heribert Prantl explains why former Russian Germans have started returning to Russia and what the Russian and German migration policies have in common – in his interview for the Russkiy Mir portal.
– Mr Prantl, why are former Russian Germans returning from Germany to Russia, even if not en masse?
– I’d like to underline straight away that we are dealing with individual stories rather than a trend. On the contrary: the German authorities are restricting and narrowing the flows of “late migrants” (the name for former Russian Germans used in Germany) from Russia and this is the key problem. Or rather the experience of their return to Germany demonstrates that they have problems with integration into the German society. This causes certain tension both among the “late migrants” and among the local population and the authorities have to somehow react. Now people may come to Germany for permanent residence only after they pass a state exam and prove they have at least a basic command of German. Far from all of the Russian migrants can be adequate to this challenge.
– What’s the reason behind the stricter policy?
– Before I became a political scientist I had worked as a prosecutor in several southern lands. Our main headache was that the crime rate among the “late migrants” remains the highest among all immigrant communities. Moreover it is among the former Russian Germans that unemployment is higher than among other immigrants, to say nothing about the local population.
– Perhaps the blunders in the official migration policy are taking their toll?
– Since German migrants automatically received citizenship, they were cherishing false illusions that they would have no integration problems, which are now obvious. The main one is that ex-Russians are mainly the rural population who come to live in an urbanized space. To date they have failed to fit in, flouting the rules and shutting off within their expat community. The second problem is that they consider themselves Germans while Germans think they are Russians. Alas, I must confess that the only German feature they have is their German names with a rich background – Bauer, Mueller or Schmidt – while they settle down as Russian colonies.
They open Russian restaurants like Teremok or Kalinka, bathe in Russian bathhouses of their own making and live the life typical of the Russian village. As a result, they are on the periphery of German society with the highest unemployment and crime rates.
I’d even say that our “Russians” have become the new “Turks” of Germany, which is quite symbolic from the historical perspective, for Germans were once the “Turks” in the US some 150 years ago. New York was then number three city with densest German population next only to Berlin and Vienne. They also preferred each other’s company shutting themselves off from the outside world. They built their churches, shopped in their German stores, wore German national clothes, cooked German meals, loved beer and loved to sit in “beer gardens.” Like today’s Russian Germans, they lived within the German-American commune.
– And yet why do Germans begin coming back to Russia?
– They do not, for only a small number of families return for good. Normally, they are those who had a high social standing back in Russia and worked as physicians, engineers, scientists. They’ve failed to confirm their diplomas and degrees here in Germany or get low wages. And so they leave together with some expat Germans, as a matter of fact. Yet the main part of these “late migrants” is the headache of our home policy. They would not renounce the German citizenship and the benefits of EU: being jobless or part-time workers, they live on the German welfare in winter that allows them even budget recreation in Tunisia or Canary Islands and in summer they return to their villages in Siberia, on the Volga or in Kazakhstan. Do you mean them?
– Yes, we call them back settlers or return migrants. They open mini bakeries, cheese plants, sausage making shops or furniture plants. Does not that mean the loss of industrious workers for the German economy?
– As the influence of the German community was on the rise in Chicago in the late 1850s, the “Native Americans” party instigated a conflict and their leader Dr. Boone was elected as the city mayor. He increased the alcohol tax by 600% and banned beer trading on Sunday. On the first Sunday after the prohibition enactment – April 21, 1855 – he sent policemen to check the fulfillment of his decree. When roughly 200 visitors and some of the pub owners were arrested for violating the prohibition, Germans raised the so-called Lager Riot. It sounds more hilarious now than it was then, for the police was shooting at the crowd and some people in the crowd were shooting at the police. The German immigrants learned their lesson: they got actively involved in politics in order to stand for their interests. A year after that civil unrest Native Americans lost the mayor’s office and the beer prohibition was rescinded. Russian Germans also capitalize on the advantages of the open German society. Unfortunately, the Chicago story as well as the story of Russian Germans is little known in Germany; emigration and immigration are not part of the national history which is treasured by common people.
– Why?
– There is no desire to have a critical attitude towards history. If Germans rethought the story of their own emigration, they would not ignore the problems of immigration and integration inside Germany. Perhaps, having their migration history in front of their eyes, they would not fear immigrants and hopefully would tackle the problems set by migration instead of debating for years on the meaning of the “immigration country.” Then the integration problems would not have caused such an overexcitement.
– Why do Germans, like Russians, repulse not just migrants but their compatriots of the German origin, with repulsion later growing into fear?
– When it is talking about migration, the concept of “leading culture” is surfacing in Germany, to which new citizens should get adapted. Nobody knows for sure what the leading culture is all about. Finally prevailing is the opinion that this must be a culture of co-existence – democracy and the power of law. It requires respect on the part of both “old” and “new” citizens, which precipitates integration. But with Russian Germans this is a long journey like Russian vast expanse, with bumps and pits.
Vladimir Emelyanenko
