Drang nach Osten in the Middle Ages and survived the travails of the World Wars. These returning German communities abroad, no longer called Volksdeutch (folk-Germans) due to politically-incorrect association with the Nazis, but Aussiedler (repatriates), have proven easy to assimilate.

Indeed, Germany rejected birthright citizenship for the children of foreigners born in the country due to a strict adherence to jus sanguinis. As a result, the children of Turkish Gastarbeiter — “guest workers” short-sightedly brought in to provide low-wage labor to German businesses — were not entitled to citizenship.

Chancellor Schmidt: Continued opponent of non-European immigration

German leaders, up to the highest levels of the state, remained deeply-wary of non-European immigration up to the 1990s. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the Social-Democratic leader of the country between 1974 and 1982, repeatedly warned hisKohl’s remigration proposal to halve the Turkish population in Germany

Schmidt was not the only one fearing the consequences of non-European immigration. His Christian-Democratic successor, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who governed the Federal Republic between 1982 and 1998, was also greatly concerned. Kohl is a particularly significant figure, having been the architect of German Reunification and, with French President François Mitterrand, of the European Union.

In October 1982, the newly-elected Kohl informed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of a top secret remigration plan to halve the Turkish population in Germany and reverse immigration flows, the kind of proposal which today could only be suggested in the far-right fringe of nationalist politics. According to declassified British documents:

Chancellor Kohl said [. . .] over the next four years, it would be necessary to