Final Research Paper

Immigrants in Society: Politics, Education and Economic

The Effects of Supranational Organizations and Immigration on German Identity

Abstract

The last two centuries have brought substantial globalization of the modern world and increased connections between individuals and governments. Part of this globalization includes the rise of supranational organizations, such as the European Union (EU) in Europe and its role in affecting individual state politics. The increased globalization of the world has also brought increased numbers of immigrants that are now finding homes in traditionally homogenous nations. This paper explores how supranational organizations, such as the EU, affect individual feelings towards important global issues, such as immigration and whether or not there is a connection between the EU, immigration and German national identity. My research found that there is not common understanding of the role of the EU and its supranational legislation by the German public, and therefore it was impossible for me to research how supranational organizations affect public opinion on issues such as immigration. In light of these findings, it does seek to understand some of the importance of grass-level organizations in addressing global issues from a local standpoint.

Question

The general question my research attempted to address was: “What is the perceived relationship between Germany and the European Union (EU) and how does this relationship affect legislation and actions around immigration?” It is important to examine the perceived relationship between Germany and the EU by the German public because there may be a gap between the intended relationship from a structural standpoint and how the relationship actually occurs or how it is understood within society. Also, by considering the perceived relationship, it takes into account how much the EU is talked about in everyday German life and whether or not it affects people’s feelings towards immigration. With the introduction of more and more immigrants into German society, the country needs rethink its identity and who is accepted as being “German”. On the other hand, participation in a supranational organization such as the EU can also affect the sovereignty of a state and may decrease the importance of state lines.

Background

Religious, ethnic and cultural minorities face various forms of discrimination and isolation within societies throughout the world. As immigration becomes a more feasible option with the expansion of transportation technology, and as the number of political and environmental refugees continues to grow, many states with historically monolithic populations are confronted with a new set of citizens and residents within their borders. The increase in population mobility over the last century forces governments to consider the political, social and economic rights of these new groups, which have proven to be contentious. The conflict between traditional populations and new immigration groups is apparent in Europe, which not only has a history of economic and political success, but which historically has had relatively homogenous populations within individual European countries. These countries have experienced increased levels of immigration, and European states are now faced with questions of how to deal with the relatively sudden increase in multiculturalism, while striving to provide equal treatment for all of their citizens.

Multiculturalism refers to the recognition and acceptance of particular and differing cultural identities of citizens and residents within a state, and can encompass several factors that lead to the creation of identity, a major aspect of which is religion (Taylor 1994, 3). In politics, multiculturalism raises questions of acceptance and how a state and its institutions should recognize different cultural groups and their differing identities, and find a way to include and protect all peoples (Taylor 1994, 3). Identity refers to the descriptions of individuals in different situations and how they choose to define themselves with respect to their environment and surroundings (Norton 2014, 60). Identities are dynamic and fluid, and can have multiple conflicting and compounding factors, such as identities surrounding culture, religion, nations and politics (Norton 2014, 60). Both multiculturalism and identity play important roles in determining the political actions taken around immigration on the national and regional level.

The state of Germany is a good example of a European state with a traditionally homogenous population that is now faced with large immigrant populations. Germany’s immigrant population increased significantly after World War II, and again after reunification, when a large influx of immigrants came to Germany as guest workers to meet the labor demands of the state to repair damage done during these eras in German history, including rebuilding infrastructure ruined by the war and repairing the internal economic crisis experienced in the late 20th century. Additionally, immigration to Germany, especially to the former West Germany, increased significantly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain as previously used immigration lines reemerged after years of stagnation during the rule of communism in Germany (Castles 1993, 10). These guest workers gained residency and some families eventually gained German citizenship (CIA 2015).

About 3 million of Germany’s residents with “migration backgrounds” emigrated from Turkey and over ninety-five percent of Turks in Germany are Muslim (Fogel 2013, 625 & 629). The political and social environments within Turkey, and the conflicts between the Kurds and the Turks, led to a large influx of Turks into Germany following World War II and German reunification (Acma 2006, 5). Turkey also faced bleak post war economic conditions and large number of young unemployed citizens, a situation that led young men to look for work in Germany. The creation of social capital in these new countries, such as family ties, and other microstructures lead to the creation of “chain migrations” in which the process of immigration creates a snowball effect that increases the numbers of migrants traveling to and from a country (Castles 1993, 27)

Although Germany has a very interesting relationship with immigration as it continues to test the legislative structure of the government, there is another organization that also affects German internal politics: Germany, as well as other European countries, have a contract with another federal organization that is unique to the European continent and expressed through the creation of the EU. The two world wars fought in the 20th century changed the way the world worked and how politicians viewed the separate, sovereign states in Europe. The wake of the world wars brought continuous conflict and strife in Europe as nations tried to rebuild their economics and infrastructures, and many people feared the potential for another World War (McCormick 1999).

The European Union began in response to the actions of Germany during World War II. The goal of the organization is to ensure stability and decrease the chance of war between countries. What began as an economic organization, the EU now encompasses charters and institutions that examine a whole range of social and political issues, including immigration (McCormick 1999). The EU has a broad range of member states, each with different relationships with minorities and immigrants. Some have more robust infrastructures to deal with new residents in their nations and others are unprepared to account for the new minorities brought by immigration. While they all have different histories and laws around immigration, the increased role and importance of global and regional organizations forces these countries to consider not only the immigration laws of their sovereign countries, but also those of the organizations they participate in. This creates an interesting dynamic and sharing of information between a state and regional level that may affect laws and relationships created with immigrants.

The EU is inherently a political intuition, but it is unique in the ways in which it engages in a plethora of different economic, political and social aspects of life in Europe. Although it started as an economic institution that created stability in Europe through trade interdependencies, it has since expanded to include a much larger set of institutions and issues. This means that the study of the EU and the political subjects it engages in as it creates supranational legislation cannot be talked about solely from the political realm. Immigration is a great example of one of these issues that affects many disciplines. Therefore, my study of the EU relationship in Germany, through the lens of immigration, does not only ask questions that focus on the political landscape, but also bring education, community organizations and other aspects into question.

Germany is one of six founding members of the European Union, in addition to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Germany now has the largest population in EU, with 15.9% of the EU population living within German borders (Europa 2015). In addition to the substantial population, Germany is also considered the economic powerhouse of the EU (Webber 1999). Although the EU was originally created in the wake of WWII to help European countries rebuild from the infrastructural and economic hardships brought on by German actions, Germany is now one of the strongest economic and political leaders in the EU. Although there is some criticism of Germany for not taking an even stronger role as a leader in the EU, there is also some hesitation for Germany’s leadership role in the EU due to Germany’s turbulent past.

Immigration does not only affect individual nation-states, but also regional organizations, such as the EU. As of 2012, the European Union had over 3.4 million immigrants, with 1.7 immigrants coming to the EU in 2012 alone (Eurostat 2015). The huge increase of immigrants (that subsequently doubled the immigrant population in the EU) is reflective of increasing immigrant lines and new populations European nations are faced with everyday. The EU, therefore, has significant power and control over immigration laws in each member nation. Additionally, 14 of the main EU member states had much higher levels of immigration than emigration, creating many issues surrounding population growth. In addition, Germany reported the largest numbers of immigrants than any other nation states, with over 590,000 immigrants crossing its borders in 2012 alone (Eurostat 2015).

As stated above, immigration continues to dominate the political arena, especially as more and more migrants travel to European countries in search of new economic, political and social opportunities. The issue of immigration is therefore a very important topic to analyze and understand as the world continues to face higher levels of immigration based on the increase of globalization and environmental and political refugees. In addition to the individual issues each country faces in regards to these immigrants, it is important to examine this issues from the very macro-level of regional organization, to understand the best way to change policies around immigration.

Even though Germany is considered one of the most powerful nations in the EU, the public engagement in the EU is different than engagement in internal state politics. For example, Germany has a substantially high voter turn out for it’s parliamentary elections compared to EU parliamentary elections. In 2013, the voter turnout for German parliamentary elections was about 72%. On the other hand, the EU Parliamentary elections had only about 28% voter turn out in 2014 (International IDEA 2014). This brings into question how important the German public views its relationships with the EU. As in the United States, the demographic with the lowest participation rate in elections are those between 21-24 years old. This originally oriented my research to be on the younger demographic (DESTATIS 2014).

There are many levels to the conversation about immigration, Germany and the EU. Although I wanted to look specifically at the relationship between the EU, Germany and legislation on Immigration, to begin my research I had to first look at how much individual people within a EU nation state know about EU as an organization. This knowledge would allow me to see whether or not there is even a chance of the EU affecting opinion on immigration, something I began to question with the low levels of participation in EU elections in Germany.

Methodology

My background introduces the quantitative data that exists in relation to participation of Germans in EU elections, as well as the statistical data relating to population size and immigration numbers. Due to our time constraints and the accessibility of information and an accessible sample size in Germany, I choose to focus on qualitative data collected from interviews and from guest lecturers that visited us in class, or that we met through site visits on our program.

I originally intended my data collection to focus specifically on interviews with college-aged individuals. As stated above, young adults are the least likely demographic to participate in elections, suggesting that their interest in politics is not as substantial as other demographic groups (DESTATIS 2014). Our accessibility to the Humboldt student body through our time on campus also made focusing on a college-aged demographic appealing. However, after conducting my first few interviews, I realized that I might have more access to interview subjects if I expanded my subject field. Another motivation to change subject field came from the consistency of data I found in college-aged students, by expanding the subject field I could determine whether the same beliefs were held throughout the broader population. I also wanted to get a broader understanding of this issue in everyday life in Germany, and not just an understanding of the role it plays in an academic environment.

My subjects therefore expanded to include individuals I met throughout my time in Germany. I found myself engaged in conversations about the EU and German relationship with not only college students, but also high school students, teachers, administrators, tour guides and others. Unfortunately, my interview subjects were not as randomly selected as I would have ideally liked them to be, but I am happy with the variety of individuals I talked to who seemed to complement my previous interview topics and follow my investigation of different levels at which people may access information to the EU and its role in German politics.

I did attempt to administer questions that would not have influence on the response of my participants through their wording or the connotations behind them. During most of my conversations I did not end up asking all of my interview questions, but instead let the conversation flow more naturally and see what topics they found important and wanted to discuss with me. The original interview questions I began with were:

• Are you a member of the European Union?

• Did you receive your primary education in Germany?

• Did you learn about the EU in school?

• Do you think the EU plays an important role in German politics?

• If yes: Why do you think there is such a low turnout for European Parliamentary elections

• Do you think Germany plays an important role in EU politics?

• How often do you keep up to date with current EU events?

• Have you heard/ been keeping up with the EU’s developments around migration and the immigrant discussions that have been going on.

• Do you think the EU has significant influence on German immigration policies?

• Ask additional questions that come up with interview

During my interviews, I took notes on the most important answers they provided. I was also fortunate to conduct some interviews over email. By conducting interviews over email, I did lose the ability to observe my participants and their reactions to my questions, but I got to have their full answers in front of me during my data interpretation and analysis. This allowed me to insert accurate quotations into my findings and also allowed my subjects to reflect on my questions before answering.

I also found reflecting on my interviews after the fact gave me time to try to understand the implications of individual’s answers outside of the interview atmosphere. In the moment of interview, it can be easy to misinterpret information; I found that reflecting on the answers and quotations I had retrieved later allowed me to view their answers more objectively. However, memories are sometimes incomplete and subjective, so that could be a limitation in my findings. Overall, I think that reflecting on interviews and how they each relate to each other and my topic at hand played a very important part of my data collection and my findings.

Another significant source of data I focused my research on was expert talks and visits we participated in during our time in Germany. Through information given at these talks, and the opportunities I had to speak to these organizations and experts outside of class time, I was able to understand another level of my topic that I previously had not examined. Many times, political research focuses on what happens on an institutional level, leaving humans as statistics for analysis. However, attending guest lectures allowed me to see another side of the political story and how political decisions made on both the state and the regional level can affect people’s everyday lives on the ground. By taking extensive notes during our visits, as well as revisiting the slides used, I was able to gather information on the role of these organizations and how they relate to politics.

By analyzing all of my findings as a political scientist, I was able to add another level to political research to try and understand other ways we can look at and see the effects of political decisions. Most of my analysis was looking at the consistency of answers, as well as the real benefits brought by the actions of community organization. I also sought to analyze the role of the EU and whether or not it is seen as an effective organization in Germany, and I found that analyzing this aspect of my research questions proved more interesting and more accessible than my original research intention of finding out how the EU affects immigration in Germany.

Findings

After I experienced several weeks of limited findings based on my questions related to the perceived relationship between the EU and Germany throughout the German public, I had a realization that maybe there was a reason I couldn’t find what I wanted from this project. I expected to get results that reflected how being part of a regional organization changes peoples’ views of the “other” and who belongs within their traditionally homogenous society. I also thought I would find why there is a discrepancy between voting turn out for regional versus supranational elections. However, what I found was that a lot of people have limited and inconsistent knowledge about the EU.

I had several interviews that ended with individuals telling me they did not know much about the EU because they were never exposed to it. This was a consistent finding even for those that worked to provide information on specific government buildings. For example, an individual in this position responded to my questions stating “I don’t really keep up a lot with EU events”, and even had a hard time answering my questions stating “It is really difficult because I don’t know very much about the EU” and “Germany’s important role was never clear to me.” I was surprised to find that someone working at a political building and in charge of providing information about the German government to tour groups was not required to know about the EU or the relationship it has with Germany.

The same answers reflecting the lack of knowledge about the EU were also found when I interviewed college students. Most of them could not remember talking about the EU in high school, and if they did remember taking class time to learn about it, they had retained little of the knowledge. Many of them responded along the lines of one student who stated, “I don’t remember that I learned anything about the EU in school”. This all made me question whether or not there was a reliable source of information for people to learn about the role of the EU in German politics.

I then took time to talk to younger school children about the information they get in high school about the EU, to see if college students did not retain previous information. At a secondary school for high achieving students, a Gymnasium, two students I talked to told me that they never discussed the EU in school, and if they wanted to talk about politics they would do it at home with their families, or learn about it from the news. I was happy to take their answers as one reflection on the amount of information provided about the EU in German schools, specifically their Gymnasium, until I asked their politics teacher who said almost the opposite; he protested that the students never have any prior knowledge of the EU or political topics and that he had the responsibility of teaching them, which he claimed he did.

After the differing answers between teacher and pupils within the school, I decided to get in touch with a more administrative figure in a school that actively seeks to understand which information is most important for students to learn to succeed by condensing their curriculum. After introducing her to my project, and asking her for her help, she said she would get in touch with the teachers in her school to see who knew about the EU aspect of the school’s curriculum and who would be available to talk to me. When she responded again, she told me that she could not find a teacher that could talk on the subject or knew about the EU curriculum in their school.

There are usually discrepancies within societies in how much people understand the political institutions and structures that run their societies. In every society, there are individuals that know more about politics than others, and there is usually a lack of understandable information on all political topics. Seeing this in a society that was not my own, however, opened my eyes to how significant this lack of knowledge can be. I also found that it doesn’t necessarily matter how much people now about a topic if they aren’t willing to do anything about it in their everyday life.

The realization I experienced about the different levels of knowledge around the structures of institutions, especially supranational institutions, helped me realize the importance of more grassroots organizations focusing on immigration. While immigration is seen as an intangible topic for many people in macro level politics, there are many micro level organizations that are worth exploring and studying when discussing immigration.

I first realized the importance of ground level organizations focusing on immigration when we were visited by two former refugees that both had very different experiences immigrating to Germany. While they were two completely different individuals with very different backgrounds and stories, I did see a connection between their two experiences, which lead me more towards seeking to understand the role of organizations in Berlin (and throughout Germany) that work with immigrants, as opposed to the legislation on a national or supranational level.

Immigrants in Germany, regardless of whether or not they have refugee status, face large institutional structures that block their full membership in Germany society. According to Rhissa, an individual who lived in a refugee camp found in the center of Berlin, and his personal experiences in the refugee camp, there are many chances for refugees and immigrants to be criminalized in Germany, especially in Berlin. While Rhissa was telling his story about staying in the camp, it was apparent that the community was a beneficial part of his experience. Although his story was almost all negative, there were moments when he and Manuela reflected on a positive experience that noticeably lifted their moods. Many of the positive experiences related back to the camp that provided services and support for refugees and immigrants as they faced the confusing and difficult road presented to immigrants upon their arrival in Germany.

I noticed this same reaction later when Andre, another refugee in Germany, told his story as a refugee in Germany as well. Although he expressed many sentiments that showed the hardships faced by individuals who attempt to migrant to Germany, there were times when he was noticeably happier during his stories. These were usually times when he discussed the support systems he encountered, and his current role acting as a support system for people still in the camp. This made me realize how intangible larger level politics seem to those experiencing hardships, and the importance of looking at what immigrants encounter in their daily lives to understand immigrant experiences in Germany. When I began my project, I believed that understanding the role and information provided about the EU to the German public was the foundation to my research and where I needed to start explore, however I soon realized that it was the people on the ground that acted as the most important starting point for understanding the issues of immigration.

As part of our class, we visited a number of community organizations that focus on the ground level effects of immigration. These organizations are obviously affected by larger, macro level politics, but it didn’t seem as much of a concern for them than addressing issues prevalent on the ground surrounding immigration. For example, the Kreuzberg Organization works to create a better community for those of immigration backgrounds through social work, political work, cultural work and the arts. The political work mostly focuses on city and state politics and working to get more specific help for immigrants living in Kreuzberg, as opposed to global immigrants and those that exist throughout the EU.

We did have the chance to visit an organization that focused more on state and national level politics, but through a more specific lens than on immigration as a general issue. The Young Islam Conference works to bring young people interested in equal opportunities for all groups, including minority groups like Muslims, in Germany. They work to bring these issues to the state and national level through conferences and discussions with political leaders. Although the Young Islam Conference does work on a larger level than the Kreuzberg Organization, it looks specifically at the educational inequalities between those of immigrant backgrounds and those of German backgrounds. Both the Young Islam Conference and the Kreuzberg Organization expressed no relationships with EU level politics when asked about the EU’s role in immigration or their organizations mission.

Another organization that focuses on the educational aspect of immigrants in Germany is the Youth Museum we visited in Berlin. This museum took yet another approach to the broadening identities introduced in Germany through immigration by attempting to showcase the demographic changes throughout Germany and express the importance that each display shows someone still considered German. Instead of focusing on politics or bringing change through providing social, economic or political resources, this organization seeks to bring education to young children of all backgrounds.

Politics is an extremely confusing discipline that has many levels and by finding the importance brought by each organization on their specific topic and interest, I found that there are so many different ways to confront a political issue in society. Whether it be through a focus on social services and local government support, such as what the Kreuzberg Organization intended to do, or a focus on larger level politics to provide more equal educational opportunities, like through the Young Islam Conference, or through providing information and education for all young Germans to show the importance of celebrating diversity within a society and expanding what it means to be German, each organization plays an important role in the issue of immigration in Germany. I found it may not be necessary to solely focus on the international and regional actions when talking about global political issues, but that looking at on the ground organizations that focus on specific aspects of the issue may inform the researcher.

Conclusion

My research was done on too small of a scale to make any legitimate preliminary conclusions, but I did find some interesting patterns in my data collection. Part of the reason my research was able to evolve over time to focus on community organizations was because of the negative results I found in my data. My individual research found that there is little to no consistent understanding of the role of the EU in German politics, or how that may affect immigration and public opinion around immigration, as I first expected to study.

Part of the reason my topic transformed and I could not find substantial data on how people learn about the EU or how that affects immigration is due to the size and variety found in the issue of immigration. I realized that although immigration is a macro-issue, it is not dealt with efficiently on a macro level. The real work that is meaningful and helpful to immigrants and refugees in society is the work done by on the ground organizations throughout nations and communities. I also found that those involved in organizations that focus on immigration are not as concerned with supranational organizations role in their issue. Ground-level organizations focus on the people the organizations are created to help. Many times, like in the Kreuzberg Organization, grassroots organizations work with local government to see more tangible results from their actions.

There are already issues with state and national organizations begin too removed from the population to understand the real issues surrounding immigration or the challenges faced by immigrants on a daily basis. The EU may just add another level of separation between the people affected by legislation and the representatives creating legislation. There is also a question of how changes in legislation on the national or supranational level will bring actual changes on the ground through their implementation because gaps may still exist between legislation and actions taken on the individual and ground level.

I found it is sometimes hard to connect what happens on a national and supranational level of politics with what happens on the ground in everyday life, but that does not mean the macro level politics surrounding these issues are irrelevant. As the issues of immigration multiply, there are increasing conservations about the relevancy and role of the EU for many European countries. Through analysis of news articles and current issues of the EU, there has been a lot of talk of one of the most economically stable nations, the UK, leaving the regional organization. While some people are questioning the relevancy of the EU and the future of the organization, I believe that it is the most efficient structure of a regional organization that exists at this present time.

The EU does have a particularly difficult task of working with states that have both federalized and centralized state structures making sovereign decisions for nations within the organization. I think that the EU does a good job of including these states in its structure, although there are issues of levels taking away from connections of people. However, when comparing it to other regional models, such as those that exist in Latin America and Africa, the EU works to protect its citizens and create a more stable region than other organizations. For example, the EU has a dependency model that creates real incentives for states to implement changes, as opposed to just giving recommendations to its member states. It is also important to remember that the EU is a relatively young organization that still needs time to figure out the most efficient and effective way to accomplish its goals and implement its policies. It is also important to consider the youth of the EU, as well as the age of the current structure of the German government. I do not believe any conclusions can be drawn on the role and relevancy of the EU as the organization has existed for a little over half a century, and politics can take a lot of time to adjust and show progress.

My research, findings and conclusions I collected while in Berlin are all very abstract and still greatly unproven. Part of this is due to the subject I chose and the time limit (as well as my limited experience and low level of proficiency of conducting ethnographic, qualitative research) found in my research process. As with any research, my time in Germany brought more and more questions relating to identity, the role of supranational organizations and how this may affect immigration. These questions include “Will a new identity emerge from the existence of the EU that supersedes national identity?”, “Will the feelings towards immigration continue to transform as people are affected by immigration and encounter it more and more in their everyday lives?”, “Will grassroots organizations that focus on international legislation emerge?” and many, many more.

References

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Cultural sensitivity

Every researcher must realize the importance of understandings one’s identity and the biases it may impose on the research process. Although there are many precautions taken to make data collected as objective as possible, there will always be a subjective aspect due to human nature. This research project was an important time for me to reflect on many aspects of myself as an academic, many of which surprised me. I was especially surprised to undercover more about my own personal and cultural biases. As a CHID major, I am asked to reflect on my identity and how my personal experience may affect my learning process and understanding of information in many of my courses. I have also been asked to reflect on my identity in relation to honors classes I’ve taken in the past. I was surprised to undercover more and more of my biases and how my own personal and academic experiences affect how I see the world and how I understood the research I was doing, as well as the results I was getting.

This was my first experience conducting qualitative research in the field. My personal and academic interests in politics makes learning about the structure and current events running the society I live in extremely interesting to me. Through this project I realized that the same feeling is not necessarily shared throughout a community, but that does not make them any less knowledgeable or any less of a community member. I also realized some of my cultural biases that affected my research. I grew up as a citizen of the United States, and therefore I only know one way to structure society through personal experience. It was sometimes hard for me to comprehend what it would be like to be part of a supranational organization, such as that found in the EU. This perspective also affects my understanding of issues, like immigration, because I have had personal experiences with the subject that changes how I view it. For example, spending part of my childhood in California, where there is a large number of Mexican immigrants, and in New York, where there are many families from an Italian immigrant background, give me a completely different view on the subject than those who may have grown up in Europe.

It was extremely frustrating for me to try and understand how a researcher can collect data in the field while being objective. After my experience in Germany, it almost feels like an impossible task to collect data while being objective, which is every researcher’s goal and drives most research around the world. It was especially frustrating because social science does not just look at numbers that are relatively universal (in the case of math and science), but must deal with certain language, cultural and societal barriers, all of which I faced in Germany. For example, there were certain language barriers throughout my interviews. I was less upset that they occurred, and more disappointed as a researcher to not be able to communicate in the language of my participants, who should be given the chance to express their feelings and understandings in their native language.

This project is of extreme personal interest to me because I see immigration as a global political topic that will only increase in importance as the world continues to change. Everyday, the world is becoming more and more connected, through the use of transportation and technology. At the same time, parts of the world are becoming less inhabitable. Issues of climate change, economic instability and violence lead more and more people to look for lives outside of their home countries. Countries that have not previously dealt with issues of immigration are now facing challenges in their political landscape of how to deal with the new numbers of immigrants arriving to their countries. It is also important because as the world becomes more connected, individual state’s politics become more and more intertwined. The EU is a great example of how politics is expanding to include more and more individuals under certain legislation and how one must change their perspective and consider the supranational organizations when discussing current political issues.

The change I had in the focus of my project allowed me to reconsider immigration on the ground level, as opposed to on the level of legislation. I sometimes find it difficult to connect individuals with community organizations and legislation. This was especially difficult because of the amount of information available on the topics of politics and immigration and the levels that exist when discussing its role. There are so many different aspects of the EU and Germany, as well as immigration, that I could talk about in this paper, and that I had very interesting conversations about with individuals from Germany and from other EU member states as well. It is hard to discuss one aspect of the issue without diving into a whole realm of other factors.

This study of immigration should be of local, national and global concern because it relates directly back to the issue of the “other’ and how certain groups face marginalization within societies due to their differences with others. It is important for the health of the state to look at how all citizens and residents are treated within its borders. Immigration is a particularly interesting topic because, although many times the numbers and statistics given refer to families or individuals just looking for better lives, it is constantly used to create fear within a country. I believe that to make effective legislation that will bring the most benefits for all in the long run, we need to look at issues such as immigration from the ground. Every statistic represents a person, with a family and with something to live for and lose.

I really enjoyed my particular research group because most people in the general “immigration:” group chose to work mostly as individuals. Although we all did most of our work solitarily, it was nice to have a support group while doing research. Our group had the chance to meet with each other and check up on our individual research projects. We all also made sure to share relevant information with each other and provide help and some guidance to whoever we felt needed it at the time.

Our larger study abroad group allowed me to be part of a research community that were interested in topics other than my own. I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to learn about other’s research topics and their research processes and methodology. Together, we went through the trials and tribulations of the research process and I found endless support and a way to get a new point of view on problems I was facing with my topic from the other students in the program. Additionally, most academic environments I find myself in are with students studying the same topics that I’m interested in. One of my favorite parts about the honors programs, which translates into one of my favorite parts of this program, is the fact that I got to study with individuals that are not involved with Political Science or other forms of interdisciplinary studies.

I’ve realized that over my time at the University, I’ve become more and more interested in learning about other people’s research. Freshman year sitting through student presentations was somewhat unbearable, as I didn’t understand the importance of learning from your peers. As I mature, I’ve realized that the people you surround yourself with add so much to your learning experience, and I would not have been introduced to as much information about my peers topics without the time we were given to discuss our topics and reflect together.