Adolescent Immigrants' Well-Being: The Case of Ethnic German Immigrants in Germany

Abstract

About 3.5 million citizens in Germany are so-called Aussiedler.This is a group of ethnic Germans whose ancestors used to live in various countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The political changes in the post-Soviet nations resulted in a steady influx of ethnic Germans, who in most regards resemble immigrants but, due to particularities of German laws, are eligible for immediate citizenship in contrast to about 8 million former “guest workers” and their families who are treated as aliens. In this article, we report a study on 220 adolescent Aussiedler and their parents. In a four-wave longitudinal design, the course of well-being after immigration and some predictors of individual differences in their adaptation were investigated for a group of novices (0 to 18 months of residence in Germany) and a group of experienced Aussiedler (19–36 months of residence), both on average 13.5 years of age. Results showed, first, that in line with previous research on immigrants in other cultures, well-being gradually improved from rather low levels soon after immigration. Second, the predictors of inter-individual differences were distinguished by length of residence. Among the experienced group, more improved levels of well-being were observed at the final assessment, if the adolescents shared their families' decision to emigrate, were given more leeway for their own decisions, came from families with higher cohesion, and engaged in leisure activities with local age-mates. In contrast, newcomers were better off affectively if their parents shared less collectivist value orientations and if they entertained fewer contacts with local peers. These distinct patterns were interpreted against the backdrop of social comparison processes with local German age-mates. The article concludes with some informed speculations about differences from other groups of immigrants in Germany.