"Why should [they] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? [...] [They] will shortly be so numerous [...] and will never adopt our Language or Customs."

These defamatory comments about refugees and asylum-seekers sound as if they might have been made today by the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD). Yet in this instance, the people vilified and accused of refusing to integrate are Germans — and the harsh judgement was made in the 18th century by none other than Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

The pursuit of happiness and a better life are mentioned in the American Declaration of Independence, which Franklin helped write. Over the centuries, they have been the motivation for countless people to turn their backs on their respective homelands.

The Germans who emigrated to America in Franklin's lifetime were actually fairly limited in number. By 1820, only about 150,000 had successfully made the journey. Often, they were persuaded by compatriots who told tales of their tremendous success in their new homeland and celebrated the prosperity they had supposedly attained in a very short space of time. What most people back home didn't know was that these recruiters received a commission for every migrant.

"The crossing on a sailing ship cost about what a tradesman would earn in a year," said Simone Blaschka of the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven. "To be able to afford that, families had to sell all their worldly goods."

A journey into the unknown

They would have had no idea what awaited them on board the ship. During the crossing, which took several weeks, they were packed together below deck in a very confined space, plagued by bedbugs, fleas and rats. Many fell sick with dysentery, typhoid, smallpox or scurvy.

In his book "Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750," the schoolmaster and organist Gottlieb Mittelberger described what he had experienced on the voyage: "Many people whimper, sigh and cry piteously for their homes; most of them get home-sick. Many hundred people necessarily die and perish in such misery, and must be cast into the sea."

On arrival in America, Mittelberger wrote, the majority of his fellow passengers were effectively auctioned off. These were people without means who were granted free passage after undertaking to work for years as bonded laborers in exchange. In the US, their contracts were sold off. Mittelberger saw families torn apart and parents forced to sell their children.

An invitation from Russia

As these early migrants were traveling to America, there was simultaneously a big wave of emigration from Germany to the east. People followed the call of the Russian czarina, Catherine the Great, herself a German princess by birth.

On July 22, 1763, she issued a manifesto inviting people to come to Russia, with the aim of cultivating uninhabited regions for arable farming. She promised the new arrivals free transport to their chosen place of residence, land, also free of charge, the first year tax-free, schooling, exemption from military service, and a special political status that would allow them to maintain the German language and, for the most part, govern themselves.

However, in the 19th century the American continent once again became the dream destination. "The German population almost doubled in the 19th century, so you can imagine what the job market was like," said Blaschka from the German Emigration Center. The situation was exacerbated by failed harvests and famines.

"People didn't see any future for themselves or their children, and decided to emigrate," she said. In this way, around 6 million Germans were drawn to the New World.

Migration: A burden or an asset?

Germans were far from the only ones who left their homeland.

"Between the beginning of the 19th century and the World War I, there were probably around 60 million Europeans who left their homes," said Jochen Oltmer, a professor at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies in Osnabrück. Then, in the mid-20th century, this trend reversed and Europe went from being a continent of emigration to one of immigration.

In the 1950s and '60s, the future looked rosy for postwar West Germany and its "economic miracle." From 1956 onward, so-called "guest worker trains" arrived in stations like Stuttgart, Dortmund and Cologne, carrying Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, Yugoslavs and Turks, attracted by the promise of well-paid jobs in the new Federal Republic.

By the time the ban on recruiting foreign labor came into force in 1973, around 14 million people had come to West Germany as "guest workers." Around 3 million stayed permanently.

Yet Germany still did not consider itself an immigration country. "For a very long time, we were dealing with the mindset: It doesn't matter why people came to the Federal Republic; they don't belong, because in any case they'll leave the country again and disappear," said Oltmer.

In 2025, according to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, more than 30% of Germany's total population had a migrant background. Yet many third- and fourth-generation citizens still don't feel they belong, which has to do with the perspective of the society in which they live.

Who's welcome – and who isn't?

These days, Germany is keen to attract skilled workers, but refugees are only granted asylum if they are politically persecuted in their homeland, or are fleeing war.

As a migration researcher, Oltmer is constantly examining the reasons why some migrants are accepted and others are not. This question was especially relevant in 2015, when refugees came to Germany in very large numbers.

"The attitude was: 'OK, you people from Syria, in light of the Syrian civil war, you are entitled to protection.' But at the same time this society says of people from Afghanistan, 'In your case, we're a bit more sceptical,'" he said.

Yet asylum accounts for barely 10% of immigration to Germany, Oltmer explained. The majority of immigrants are not people fleeing their country. "This means that when it comes to scandalization and the creation of certain negative images, we are seeing a massive distortion of the debate." And the descendants of the German emigrants Benjamin Franklin once reviled as "Palatine boors" have long since perfectly integrated into American society.

In Germany, however, integration is taking much longer. "Many people have no possibility of regularizing their status and obtaining a stable residence permit, even though everyone involved knows they can stay, and will stay," said Oltmer. He believes people urgently need to sit down and clarify how they want German society to look in future.

"It may be a very hard, even hurtful discussion. But it's the only way."

This article was originally written in German.