This paper has been written by Björn Jungius within the framework of the Flexi-in-Security project which tries to assess the impact of the financial crisis of September 2008 on migrant communities in various European states. Its purpose is first and foremost to introduce some basic and general background information on "the German case" to non-German readers. Its intention is thus to allow comparability of the "post-crisis" situation of
migrants in Germany with that in other European states. The author tries to do so by elaborating the specifics and oddities of the "German case". The paper, hence, first tries to shed some light on the history of migration to Germany, as only from such a historical perspective those specifics and oddities can be explained. From there on, it proceeds to give some general information on the integration of migrants to the German labour market prior to the crisis; outlines basic regulations of access to the German labour market, as well as migrant's access to social benefits. In a final chapter the impact of the crisis on the German economy will be outlined, and some conclusions for an improvement of the situation of migrants on the German labour market will be drawn.
The main argument made is that Germany was facing a crisis of migrant employment already prior to the financial crisis of 2008.