Ethnic German remigrants from Eastern Europe, so-called
Spätaussiedler, constitute a special category of immigrants. Ethnic
German remigrants are persons of German descent from the states of the
former Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc who moved to Germany to escape
ethnic discrimination. If their status as
Spätaussiedler is confirmed, they may
acquire German citizenship. Many ethnic German remigrants only speak a
little bit of German, and their non-German relatives and children
usually have no knowledge of the language at all. While the number of
Spätaussiedler has steadily declined
since the mid-1990s, there has been a proportional increase in the
number of non-German (i.e., non-German speaking) relatives accompanying
them to Germany. This has led to considerable integration problems.
Thus, on January 1, 2005, basic German language competency became a
condition for the admission of the non-German relatives of ethnic German
remigrants. This photo shows Russian
Spätaussiedler of various ages at a
German course in the admission camp Berlin-Marienfelde in January
2003.
German Language Class for Ethnic German Remigrants (January 22, 2003)