Sonja Haug

The Chain of Immigration – the Example of Italian Immigrants into Germany, 1955-2000

This article investigates the history of Italian immigration to Germany from the viewpoint of chain immigration. "Chain migration" is understood as a process whereby, slowly but surely, pioneer immigrants were followed by family members and persons from their social network. Chain migration is very important in explaining the international processes of migration, for example, from Italy to Germany. If we examine the legal, economic and empirical turning-points in the history of Italian immigration to Germany we can differentiate between six phases. First, there is the recruitment of the pioneers (1955-1960), second, the migration of workers (1961-1966), third, the coming of the families (1967-1974), fourth, the reunification of the families and the social networks (1975-1982), fifth, permanent settlement versus returning home (1983-1992), and sixth, the trans-national community (1993-2000). The process of migration between Italy and Germany, which began over fifty years ago, has not come to a halt, although the Italian population in Germany has consolidated itself.