Abstract
This article studies the stories of Russian citizens who were born in Germany but reside in Russia. Most of them had relocated to Russia as a result of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany after 1990. Analysing individual data from the 2002 and 2010 censuses, the author traces the lives of children born into the families of Soviet military men based in East Germany after World War II. Over 140,000 such migrants can be found in the 2002 census, far more than from any other country that was not part of the Soviet Union. Repatriation was accomplished from 1991 to 1994; and even though Germany financed part of the operation, it was necessary to solve the problems of accommodation and employment of the military men and their families locally. As a result of the study, the author manages to determine the territories inhabited by Russians born in Germany in the early twenty-first century. The number of people among them who speak foreign languages and have post-secondary education is higher than average, which testifies to the fact that the joint effort of the two countries was more beneficial for the future of the people born in Germany than might have been expected. The competence and education they acquired, together with the social networks between those repatriated, added significantly to their human capital and their contributions to Russian society.
Highlights
This article studies the stories of Russian citizens who were born in Germany but reside in Russia
Our topic here is the more than 100,000 persons born in Germany who live in Russia according to the censuses taken in 2002 and 2010, many of whom were part of the repatriation of troops from Germany in the early 1990s
That the sending of Russian troops to East Germany would lead to large return migration conforms to both the classic theories of Ravenstein and a more recent overview of migration theories [Albrecht; Ravenstein]
Summary
The Destinies of German-B orn People in Russia terms, the future of many German-born individuals was brighter than might have been expected. In 2002, there were 146,980 persons who were born in Germany but live in Russia, a number that dropped to 136,460 in 2010 According to the former census, only a few countries have sent more immigrants to Russia: there were more persons born in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Moldova, all of which used to be part of the Soviet Union. This means that persons born in and perhaps belonging to the ethnic groups inhabiting these countries were internal migrants rather than immigrants if they settled in Russia before 1992. In 2002, the average age was 40 and 36 years for women and men, respectively (41 and 36 in 2010), while among the German-born it was 31.2 and 30.9, respectively
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