Germany’s Migration Policy Challenges: From Restraint to Openness

Abstract

The article deals with the main stages of the formation of migration policy in Germany, as well as the issues of its current state. The authors compare how Berlin’s approach to the topic of mass migration fl ows has changed in diff erent periods over the past decades, depending on the key domestic and foreign policy trends in Germany and around its borders. The researchers believe that the problems of German migration policy are primarily related to the political costs that accompany the German leadership’s eff orts to form a balanced migration policy. The authors conclude that the German migration policy, initially aimed at saturating the labor market in dire need of personnel, on the contrary leads to growing economic and fi nancial diffi culties and becomes a serious problem in the political life of the country. Thus, the controversy over Germany’s migration policy can be attributed to one of the key topics that increase the polarization of German society and generate public disagreements and dissatisfaction with the government’s actions.