Germany has come a long way since the days of Hitler and Nazi rule. Once a country brutally wiping out masses of minorities through concentration camps, Germany has transformed into a magnet for immigration. This transformation can be explained through post-war reconciliation and liberal based immigration policies. Today, not only do Western and Northern Europeans immigrate into Germany, but Eastern Europeans, Middle Easterners, Africans, and Asians have joined in to make Germany a very multi-cultural mix. .
There have been six major migration waves since the end of World War II that can identify Germany today. The first wave began in 1945 and ended in 1959. It was made up of Ethnic German expellees and refugees in whom eight million resettled in Germany. The second wave occurred from 1950 to 1961 and consisted of large numbers of East Germans migrating to the West. The third, covering the mid-1950's to 1973, brought large numbers of foreign workers primarily from Turkey, Italy, Portugal, and the former Yugoslavia. The fourth wave was from 1973 to the late 1980's and constituted the families of the earlier foreign workers to join their families already in Germany. The fifth, from the early 1980's to 1988, consisted of flows of Ethnic Germans primarily from Eastern Europe. Finally, the sixth wave has been in effect since 1988 and has brought hundreds of thousands of migrates from every corner of Europe. .
Postwar immigration policies of Germany have received some tensions through all this immigration. Germany has, in fact, tried very hard to live up to its promise of protecting and allowing immigration but has been having trouble due to the large number of migrates received. There are, of course, tensions between the work force in Germany and migrate workers flocking there. This has created a problem that the German government is trying to find a solution to.
