How Migration has contriputed to the Rise of the Far-right in Germany

Abstract

Increased migration into Europe in the summer of 2015 signified a shift in how the European Union responds to migration, and now more so than in Germany, which has opened its doors to about 1.5 million migrants as of 2018. While Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcome helped alleviate the burden placed on countries that bordered the east as well as the Mediterranean, it has been the subject of a lot of controversy over the last three years within Germany itself. Drawing on this controversy, this study explores how migration has affected Germany’s migration policies, and the extent to which it has affected a shift towards the right within the government. I conclude that Germany’s relationship with migration has been complicated since its genesis, and that ultimately Merkel’s welcome was the exception to decades of policy, not the rule. Thus, as tensions increase between migrants and citizens, and policy fails to adapt to benefit both parties, Germany’s politicians will advocate to close the state from migrants more and more. However, these actions will fail to account for how Merkel’s decision has already drastically changed Germany’s culture, socially, demographically, and economically, as well as politically.