Known as the old continent, Europe has a population of 735 million people distributed in 49 countries. This makes Europe one of the most (if not the most) diverse continents in the world. We can find a mixture of many different cultures, religions, backgrounds and languages coexisting in Europe, some of the in a very efficient and pacific way, others not that much.
When talking about Europe it is necessary to talk about the European Union. It is constituted by 27 countries of Europe and its origins can be found in the early 50s. Nowadays it constitutes the most powerful economy in the world. There are some European countries that are not part of the EU but they want to be. The case that we are going is precisely between one member and one candidate, Germany and Turkey, and the Turkish migration.
This migration finds its origins since the 17th and 18th centuries when the Ottoman Turks attempted to expan
d their territories through the Balkans. The German-Turk relations were strengthened by the mutual support of both during the different conflicts, especially the World War I. nevertheless it was during the post war period when the migration became to be massive.Decimated by the war the German soldiers were not able to cover the labor force needed when they came back to their home. Until 1950 this gap in the demand was covered by the fugitives of the East Germanic zones. After this period Germany suffered a huge lack of qualified handlabor, so they created the concept of “Gastarbeiter” (guest worker), many of whom were Turkish men. These guest workers were expected to leave a few years later but they didn’t, starting this way the Turkish population of Germany.
Negative sentiments towards immigrants are often expressed as fears that immigrants adversely affect the economic welfare of the native population. These sentiments are not an exception in Germany, which have had led to many intercultural conflicts between locals and migrants, and the main problem in Germany is that the solution has to be by consensus and integration, but none of the parts want to do concrete actions. Turks want to preserve everything of their culture, but they have to adapt some aspects since they are in a foreign country; and Germans have to help to make the transition. Since none of them is doing anything concrete we can say that the conflict may take a long time to find a solution.
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Class presentation
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