During the period of division, the number of East German Refugees and Immigrants who entered West Germany reached approximately 4.75 million. Because two-thirds of those East Germans had arrived in the West during the 1950s, West Germany had to confront a series of radical issues during this period. Although the massive escapes from the East to the West represented a burden to West German society, both socially and economically, various policies and systems of support that were established during the 1950s, coupled with the remarkable economic growth of West Germany after the mid-1950s enabled the smooth integration of East German Refugees into West German society. Accordingly, this phenomenon has been recognized as a success myth. This paper attempts to analyze how East German Refugees were integrated into West German society in the 1950s and to explore how the level of success achieved by the processes executed during the period of the Cold War and the time span in which Germany was divided. First of all, this paper discusses the criteria and procedures that the West German government used in its practices of accepting refugees from East Germany. Then, this paper explores how the massive number of Refugees were smoothly integrated into society by engaging in a detailed analysis of West Germany’s integration policy. The issues obscured by the success myth are also described so as to critically examine whether the integration of East German Refugees can be deemed as a true success story. Eventually, through the analysis of these issues, this paper strives to fill in an existing gap in the knowledge base, which has occurred as a result of the sociological emphasis on the topic; to complete this goal, this paper discusses the implication of this topic towards the current situation of massive Refugees from North Korea who have relocated into South Korea.
카카오톡
페이스북
블로그