Ms. Woellert, you have looked at earlier immigration phases in Germany, for example, the guest workers (known as "Gastarbeiter") and their descendants. What conclusions can be drawn from past experience?

Franziska Woellert: Today, you can see that Germany has felt and is still feeling the repercussions of missed integration opportunities. People were seen as guests - as revealed by the name - who did not need to be taken care of and certainly not integrated. Anything that happened in terms of integration was the doing of immigrants themselves and they faced many obstacles.

With regard to integration, what distinguishes ethnic groups from each other?

The ethnic groups differ mostly in their time of arrival. Most guest workers did not intend to stay a long time; also, they mainly came to work in low-skilled jobs. Thus, the level of education was accordingly low. This applies to many southern European immigrants in the early years, but also to the large group of Turkish migrants. And since no real integration measures had been implemented, the second and third generation of these migrants has not, in part, managed to make up for the lack of education of the first generation.

It was different for Iranians who came to Germany after the fall of the Shah in 1979. Why?

They were mostly people from higher classes, who were well-educated, had a better financial background and had an easier time in Germany because of their personal skills.

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