Writer, academic and diplomat David Dabydeen recalls five very different stories of mass migration from around the world.

They move in times of crisis, fleeing war or instability, poverty or corruption. And then they face a new challenge - how to find a way to survive and prosper in new, often unfamiliar environments.

David considers to what extent were these migrants were affected by the circumstances of their departure - by the violence they may have witnessed or the economic and political stresses they endured - and who bore the responsibility for their integration. Many different approaches have been tried, from large-scale mobilisation of official institutions to an almost total disengagement by the state. And the results are equally variable, suggesting that there are no easy solutions to this increasingly important dilemma. What does emerge clearly is that race, education and language all play a vital role.

West Germany's economic miracle saw thousands of 'guestworkers' invited to work in the country, the bulk of them from Turkey. In this fourth programme, we hear how the system was built on a false assumption - that that all the workers would eventually go home. Many of the Turks too, felt equally sure that the arrangement was temporary.

The reality would be very different - today there are more than three million people of Turkish descent in Germany. The programme meets migrants, officials and experts, and discovers that Germany's spectacularly hands-off approach to integration left many Turks in a legal and cultural limbo.

Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

 

Release date:

2 March 2017

Available now