Many political leaders in Germany have promoted the interests of these newcomers with a “land of opportunity” spirit familiar to Americans of yore.

An immigration law was passed in 2005 that affirmed the new identity of Germany as a destination for immigrants from the Middle East, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has articulated a pro-immigrant stance and dismissed its critics, as when in 2015 she asserted that “there can be no tolerance of those who question the dignity of other people.” Nevertheless, the integration of these Muslim immigrants into German society has been very difficult.

Global Scholar Carla Roever takes on this issue in her remarkable paper, in which she discusses what role the German state should play in the matter. She writes that “the research in this paper is particularly relevant for female Muslim immigrants in Germany, as they suffer the lowest employment rates out of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and are, according to a number of studies, the least integrated into German society by all other indicators. Therefore, the question of why this group suffers such low employment rates and is so poorly integrated, as well as how to mitigate this phenomenon, is of the utmost importance.”

Photo: Raul Lieberwirth (Creative Commons)