Michael Luick-Thrams: America can take lessons from Germany's immigration policies

Cultural historian and Iowa native Michael Luick-Thrams gave a talk Friday on the refugee crisis in Germany at the Northeast Iowa Peace and Justice Center.

His talk focused on the history of immigration in Germany, and suggested that while Germany has a better mindset than other countries when it comes to immigrants,there are also many internal problems.

Luick-Thrams stated that "As Americans, we see the European refugee crisis through the American perspective, but we need to look at Germany's history with immigrants."

Luick-Thrams restated the history of Germany's history with immigrants, which starts back in the 1690's and has become a nearly ever-present concern, particularly surging post-WWII.

As part of the German Constitution, Germans must take in and house refugees from war-torn countries. This started when the West Germans had to take many from the East who were escaping from the Soviet army. "Germany has had to integrate," Luick-Thrams said.

Luick-Thrams also dispelled rumors about the crisis. He noted that Germans have well-established and rigid registration of their immigrants. "There are no waves of immigrants wandering the German countryside," Luick-Thrams said.

While Luick-Thrams thinks Germany is well-equipped to deal with these immigration issues, he also notes that the German policy is economically self-serving.

"Germany always talks about "our chance," Luick-Thrams said, "well this immigrant crisis is their chance to acquire lots of labor that their economy desperately needs."

Despite of these issues, Luick-Thrams argued that America can take lessons from Germany's policies and history, particularly considering the American population's personal connection to immigration.

"Our people did not come invited, we need to put this issue in relative terms," Luick-Thrams said. "Ultimately, we need to bring in a new dialogue. New things have to be talked about."