
New Study: Immigrants are Better Educated than Germans - Libertatea
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-study-immigrants-are-better-educated-than-germans-a-901681.html
======
bayesianhorse
The sad truth is that most or at least very many of my fellow Germans don't
believe studies like this.

Some still believe that most immigrants come into Germany looking to live on
welfare. Our constitution says "The dignity of Humans is untouchable". The
going interpretation of the federal court is that immigrants, especially from
the EU or asylum seekers, are humans, and thus the state has to pay them the
same basic living subsidy as they pay unemployed Germans.

A common interpretation is that this subsidy is higher than in a lot of
European countries, and those poor should be immigrating in droves. But they
don't. I suspect higher living costs, language difficulties and social ties
play a more important role than one or two hundred Euros per month.

When Polish people gained freedom to immigrate to Germany as a result of
joining the EU and the Schengen Treaty, all sorts of German organisations
predicted a deluge of undereducated low-pay workers. They didn't come either,
at least not in the feared numbers.

In the US as in Germany there are varying views on facts and numbers around
immigration. I'm no longer convinced that there is any basis for restrictions
on immigration. Nations would have to adapt to that, but so do we have to
adapt to a shrinking workforce.

