If I Had Only Known... (Spät-)Aussiedler Migrants from Upper Silesia in Poland to the Federal Republic of Germany Are Taking Stock of Their Lives

The paper discusses the problems of migration and the lives of migrants from a long-term perspective, their fulfilment and disappointment and is based on research that I carried out on migrants who came to West Germany from Upper Silesia between 1970 and 2000 and received (Spät-)Aussiedler status. The people who were interviewed have spent most of their lives in Germany, have different identities and many years after emigration are reassessing their decision to migrate. The research was carried out on different generations – the first generation, the classic 1,5 generation and the second generation. The respondents were from various social classes, professions and occupations.

According to German law, many Silesians were able to migrate to West Germany as (Spät-)Aussiedler. The reasons for migrating were different and ranged from a real German identity through labour migration to exile (“Solidarity” activists). An important push-pull factor was the fact that Poland was not a democratic country and suffered from economic problems especially in the 1980s. In the bad economic situation – also in the nineties – migration to West Germany as “ethnic Germans”, which was combined with financial support from the German state seemed to be the best solution for many Silesians.

The purpose of my research is to examine who are the (Spät-)Aussiedler from Upper Silesia nowadays; what do they think about their migration; in their opinion was it a good or bad decision, especially after 1989 and after the EU enlargement, after which Poland has changed and there are new life possibilities. I am also trying to answer the question what determines whether migrants consider their decision to migrate as one that brought fulfilment or disappointment and who might consider themselves to be a winner or a loser.