After The Second World War (1945-1985) German Immigrants

Migration generally refers to the situation in which people travel through somedistances and settle down in a certain area for a period. Migration, on the one hand,changes the structure of labor force in the resident country, as well as boosting itseconomy. On the other hand, however, migration brings challenges to the residentcountry in economy, culture, security and so on. Thus, it is also a problem.Researches regarding migration focused mainly on history and policy studies andtheoretical studies. The former dealt with migration history and policies of migrationin different countries, while the other tried to explain why there is migration. Inmigration theory, push and pull prevails in its simplicity and maneuverability. Thetheory suggests that the identification of two aspects, namely, push factors that pushpeople out of their original residence and pull factors that do the reverse, would leadus to solve the question of what cause migration.When researchers dug further, doubts of the theory’s power of explanation emerged.Some abandoned push and pull theory and tried to find their own explanation whileothers modified it. The dissertation develops the idea of push-pull-drag by addinganother force, the dragging factor, to the original push and pull theory. Push andpull factors are actually positive forces that encourage people to move, while draggingfactors discourage them. The joint forces of all three factors determine whether tomove or not. A certain factor may act as positive force in one situation and draggingfactor in another. Generally speaking, migration takes place only when the influenceof positive factors overwhelms dragging factors.Researches focused on the reason of migration also neglected the sources of factors.They listed some factors which were believed to be related to migration but failed todiscern their sources. This probably explained why people doubted the explanatorypower of push and pull theory. The push-pull-drag model proposed in the papersuggests that distinguish of the sources of factors is important. Level analysis appliedin international studies was introduced to categorize the factors that contribute tomigration. There are also three levels: international level, domestic level andindividual level.Examination of the push-pull-drag model proceeded in a detailed review ofmigration in Germany from1945to the mid-1980s. Although the model may fit allthree levels, the paper analyzes German experiences on international level anddomestic level, considering the complexity and uncertainty of factors on individuallevel. While concentrating on influence posed by single factor, the paper also paysattention to the interaction of factors from the same level and different levels as well. Generally speaking, the factors and the interactions among factors contribute to themigration process in Germany. Factors on international level usually play a positiverole in migration process. On domestic level, economy and migration are positivelycorrelated. The effects of migration policy, influenced by other factors, are not soclear.The paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter introduces the development ofpush and pull theory and discusses the analysis framework of the paper,push-pull-drag model. Current studies on migration theory focus on push and pullforces, as well as intervening factors, without a clear reference to dragging factors.The push-pull-drag model, according to their effects, classifies all factors that arerelated to migration into three groups, namely, push forces, pull forces and draggingforces. What’s more, the model also categorizes these factors by the levels that theyare on.The second and third chapters apply push-pull-drag model to analysis Germanmigration between1945and1985. Different periods present distinctive characters.Migration in post-war period mainly consists of prisoners of war. While in the coldwar, guest workers and family reunion immigrants accounted for a major part ofmigration in Germany. These trends are related to changes in internationalenvironment, domestic economy and migration policies of Germany. The last part ofthe paper is a conclusion.