Are the the children of Immigrant parents in Germany still considered “Ausländer” or “Non-Germans”?

21 comments

1. I’m seen as a full blooded German, since my name doesn’t reflect on my other side and I also don’t have an accent or similar stuff. Sometimes it makes me sad that I have to remember and reinforce that I’m “only” part German, but sometimes when looking at how people of my heritage are being treated and called…

2. I’m probably going to be downvoted by the Germans here on this sub, but you’ll never be considered *truly* German. This is one of those things that made me so bitter that I left. You’ll be often confronted with “Aber woher kommst du *wirklich* an?” even after answering Germany. You’ll be treated as an Ausländer, will hear negative comments, will be discriminated for jobs, etc. (all the typical issues Ausländer face). How do I know? I’m one myself, and numerous friends and colleagues like me have faced this. I assumed things had changed for the better since my childhood, but after hearing my friends’ kids go through this same shit all over again, I know things aren’t better. Germany is not an immigrant friendly land, no matter what the government tries to sell abroad.

3. Of course. What did you think?

4. Foreigners’ kids will always be called “[insert ethnicity here]”, even if the land of their parents is just a story they heard when they were little.

   And then, Germans wonder why integration fails spectacularly.

5. Personally, as a German, I always consider people with a German passport and speaking German as…. German!! 😁 what else would you be if youve lived all your life in Germany? 😁

6. I’m an Ausländer (American) and my wife is German. My kids are dual citizens and were born in the USA. My kids are considered German by their friends and peers. I’m the crazy American. Though, I must admit, I don’t do much to dispel that.

7. Came over as a child, no issues to speak of as an adult. Looking and sounding German definitely helps, though, as well as the social circles you grow up in, so the perspective or let’s say a German Turk might be more interesting.

   The worst that happens now is older Germans speaking in a clearer, louder voice after learning where I was born.

8. For me personally it depends wether or not they can and are willing to speak german and how they behave. For me a the colleague who moved to germany recently and is doing his best to learn german and is respecting our culture qualifies more as a german than someone who lives in germany for 40 years but can’t communicate properly and only sticks to people that speak their native language or those kids who used “german” as an insult. Image being insulted as german in germany in the german language. Yeah, no, those kids were not german, not even if they never saw any other place their entire life

9. As a German? Yes.
   Most people will accept you as a German on Paper (Deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit) but you simply won’t be an ethnic German. Thats why they ask where your roots are.

10. Most Europeans (not all!) define themselves by ethnicity. You have your parents ethnicity.

11. You will always be Ausländer no matter how many generations you are here.

12. Teacher here, most of my students with a history of migration (parents or grandparents) refer to themselves as „Ausländer“ and a lot of them see their families home country as their „Heimat“ (which, even for Germans, can be a complicated concept).

    From my experience it goes both ways: they’re not fully accepted even in second or third generation and therefore resort to their „original“ nationality and make it a huge part of their identity. Some really overcompensate and show an (in my opinion) unhealthy amount of national pride towards their families origin.

    On the other hand that same reaction triggers other people to think migrants would not want to integrate. Which makes them treat them differently/badly.

13. The funny things is that, when you go to your home country you get called foreigner out cause if you have been raised in Germany than speak your other mother language it has an accent so you come here back to Germany you are also called Foreigner/Ausländer.. so the right term we are looking here is called: Heimatlos….

14. German is an ethnicity, nationality, and culture. Depending on how German you are in all three categories will determine how ‘German’ Germans view you. That’s the simple truth, and is the case in most countries that are not the Americas, Australia etc.

15. Yes of course. In Germany, there’s a phrase “Migrationshintergrund” (immigrant background) and it’s essentially synonymous with “underprivileged.” You only need one foreign grandparent to qualify as Migrationshintergrund and this is super relevant in schools because there’s a bias against these kids and they’re less likely to be, for example, recommended for gymnasium.

    If you look German, though, people don’t assume you have a Migrationshintergrund.

16. Germans are not German since the WW2. There are so many Germans mixed with russian blood because. Russian soldiers raped german women for decades after the war

17. There is citizenship and there is nationality. For most people their nationality and their citizenship are the same but not for everyone.

    With more and more integrated Europe we are going towards the American model where few generations from now someone will describe themselves “I am 1/4849374 German, 1/484737373 Greek 3/48473737373 Czech and 1/48484844 Kinder Bueno.

18. I had an interesting chat with our team’s working student. I’m not German myself, so we were talking about the similarities between my culture and that of her family’s (Turkish). To my surprise, she considered herself Turkish and spoke of her “Heimat” as Turkey – I asked her if she was born there, because I thought that she was born and raised in Germany. She confirmed that she’s German, but said that she felt happier in Turkey and that her family’s culture is where she feels more welcome. I told her that life is short and perhaps she should choose to live in the place where she lives the happiest. Her reply: well economically it makes sense for me to live in Germany, here I also have free university studies and a job where I earn well, I don’t think I have many advantages in Turkey like I do here and also I’d rather earn money in Germany.

    So it’s my impression that many German people of Turkish background label themselves as Turkish first and German second. IMO they idealized through their parents and relatives the place where they came from. One thing is going there on vacations for a few weeks and another altogether is making a life there.

    I compare the whole thing to Latinos born in the USA. I have cousins who are the 1st generation of kids born from immigrants. They consider themselves proud Latinos, they mostly socialize and ended up marrying other Latinos and have their own communities. Spanish was spoken at home. My cousins are fluent in English, their parents know speak enough English to work – I can’t tell you if decades later they became fluent. But the difference I see is that they *are* proud to be Americans too and none of them consider Mexico, Colombia, the “homeland” nor “dream” of it as a permanent home. American holidays are also honored. If I compare, I feel that my cousins are much more integrated in American society.

19. It depends on how well you speak German and how well you conform to German social norms. If you do then you are accepted as most people will assume you are German is forth generation. Otherwise you can pretty much forget it. At least in my experience, immigrants or immigrant children are the once then ask the most often, where I am actually from.

20. It really depends on how you behave.

    For example: my grandpa is Italian but has German citizenship. His children don’t consider themselves and were never considered as Italians. They don’t even speak the language because my grandpa never spoke it at home. Nobody would consider them “Ausländer”. I wouldn’t even say I have Italian heritage because of that.

    Same for my best friends family. The parents came from Poland to Germany with one grandmother and the kids never learned their native language because “in Germany you speak German”.

    Two of my cousins have a french dad and speak French. Still they are Germans for me but with a strong heritage. The other examples were weak connections to their heritage.

    Then there are people living in Germany (mostly Turkish and Russians in my experience) where even the third generation is still so much connected to their parents or grandparents home country where some of them don’t even have a German ID and only the “original” one. They consider themselves as Ausländer and who am I to judge? It’s their decision, I don’t care and I don’t treat them any different.

21. I usually view people as people.

    But then again, I just might have watched too much Star Trek in my formative years.