The experts cite a survey result that makes you sit up and take notice: only 14 percent of the post-Soviet migrants surveyed in Germany in 2019 agreed with the statement that Russia had the right to exert influence in Ukraine. However, the proportion of those who complained about the West’s lack of respect for Russia was higher in the survey. The attitudes of migrants towards Putin’s Russia are “inconsistent”, says the Viennese researcher Jannis Panagiotidis, scientific director of the Research Center for the History of Transformations at the University of Vienna (RECET), at the digital expert panel on Germany’s post-Soviet immigrants organized by Mediendienst Integration and their attitudes to the impending war in Eastern Europe.
He is sitting in front of a laptop camera during the online discussion with journalist Nikolai Klimeniouk and Anna Litvinenko from the “Digitization and Participation” office at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. The experts agree that the diversity of the migrant group is not sufficiently recognized by the German public. Using his life story, Klimeniouk shows how carelessly the German majority society often lumps together migrants from the former USSR. He himself is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian who immigrated to Germany via Russia. “On a Jewish ticket,” says the journalist. Is Klimeniouk a migrant from Ukraine or Russia, or just an immigrant with Jewish roots from the former USSR?
The integration was successful
Putting the phenomenon into numbers seems to be easier than finding the right terms for its heterogeneity. The experts quote the 2019 microcensus and put the number of people in Germany with a post-Soviet migration background at 3.5 million. Around 145,000 people with a post-Soviet migration background live in Berlin. The so-called late resettlers, i.e. people whose German ancestors once emigrated to the Tsarist Empire, form the largest group. Around 220,000 Jews found a new home in Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the experts, socio-economic indicators such as the unemployment rate or average income show that the history of post-Soviet migration is a successful one overall.
However, not all migrants have succeeded in climbing up the social ladder. Jewish quota refugees are particularly affected by poverty in old age. According to experts, the reason for this is the hesitation of the Germans to recognize Soviet qualifications. However, the experts agree that dissatisfaction with life in Germany and widespread criticism of the system cannot be spoken of in general. The migrants are also not a primary target of Russian disinformation, they stress. “That wouldn’t be interesting from the numbers either,” says Panagiotidis.
Many are in solidarity with Ukraine
There is currently a wave of solidarity with Ukraine on social media used by post-Soviet migrants. Litvinenko believes that people who are more inclined towards Russia expressed doubts about an impending war. None of the three experts saw any indication of an escalation in tensions in Germany between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian migrants. On the other hand, fears drove both sides. “Anyone who has relatives in Ukraine hears about emergency backpacks for people fleeing.” Migrants with family members in Russia were concerned about whether impending sanctions could make visits to Russia more difficult in the future. The journalist Klimeniouk expresses a slight concern. He reports on a journalist’s post, but the tone was wrong. “In the comments, some under his post even called for the expulsion of all Russians from Germany as a threat to democracy,” he says.
Anyone who has relatives in Ukraine hears about emergency backpacks for people fleeing.
Anna Litvinenko
Klimeniouk sees solidarity with migrants from Russia and Belarus as an important contribution to supporting civil society in both countries. In addition, dissidents fleeing repression changed the image of post-Soviet migrants in Russia. “There are a lot of people who know the Russian dictatorship very well, and that’s already having an effect on the community,” he says.