The Refugee Problem in Western Germany

The Refugee Problem in Western Germany
Author: NA Bouman
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 49
Release: 1939-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9789401745666

Gradually interest in Germany and her manifold problems is growing. News of her in dailies and weeklies is ever increasing. In the Netherlands, too, there have lately been signs of this increasing interest, not only in Germany but in the problem of German refugees from the East, "the greatest migration of our time." This isthe case - despite a certain reserve in attitude towards German problems which, in the Netherlands, is only too easy to understand. The interest in our Eastern neighbour can to a certain extent be accounted for by the reviving economic relations. Then, the recognition of a "European Co-operation" including Western Germany means that attention is also being given to social conditions in all countries ofthe future "EuropeanCornmunity." The international problem of a divided Germany and other German difficulties, not least that of the German refugees, which has sometimes been called the most serious present-dayEuropean minority problem, requires a solution.In 1946V. Gollanczwarned England and Western Europe of the consequences to Western Germany and the whole world of the migration from East to West which was at that time well on its way. In the Netherlands Prof. P. J. BOUMAN has emphasized this problem in his book "Society in Ruins." He calls the stream of refugees to Western Germany "a migration of unknown extent." In the UnitedStates, England and othercountries, but in Western Germany especially, a great many publications on this subject have appeared.

The Refugees as a Burden a Stimulus, and a Challenge to the West German Economy

The Refugees as a Burden a Stimulus, and a Challenge to the West German Economy
Author: Friedrich Edding
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 67
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9401195382

The study by Dr Friedrich Edding is, as far as I can see, the first paper to treat the economic side of the Refugee problem in Western Germany in an impartial form, showing, on the basis of new figures, its positive as well as its negative aspect and effect. Anyhow it may be of some use to underline - from the "bird's-eye view point" of Basle - some of his conceptions and conclusions and to throw some light on the sociological background which makes this particular problem the hard core of the social and political situation of Western Germany - and probably of Western Europe as well. Firstly: it must be noted that this scientific analysis supports neither the optimists nor the pessimists. The optimists are bound to admit that the stimulus provided by new manpower and entrepreneurial initiative is more than counterbalanced by lack of capital and by the need for considerable aid in the form of housing, clothes and money for millions of refugees who are old, sick or for other reasons unable to work. The pessimists are bound to admit that the burden of 9 million immigrants is an enormously stimulating challenge to Western Germany and that this burden is partly counterbalanced by the new firms, methods and techniques which owe their foundation, application or development respectively to the Refugee entrepreneurs, cattle-breeders or seed-growers.