The success of their emigration is mixed. Most were able to eventually resume the careers they had, or were studying to have, in the old country. The least successful had less education or less transferable skills like a bus driver in Koeln.

Several relatives had married local non-Germans and their children felt no connection to their mothers German heritage. They did not emigrate. But one young man with a Russian wife did manage to bring her to Koeln. They and their children are doing very well. Their young daughter is a champion show dancer. Several of her older cousins are professional musicians.

The coldness and the integration policy of Germany (which involves two steps: “firstly, you integrate into our culture, so that we don’t see any difference, otherwise you will not be accepted and secondly, we are not interested in where you are from and how you can enrich our culture and improve our understanding of you”) makes it even more difficult to feel accepted and gives Kazakh-Germans more the status of immigrants and not of Germans coming home. The qualifications “immigrants” gained in Kazakhstan are not accepted, which leads to the majority of people ending up doing job just to survive, which are mostly below the educational level they received. Parents’ eagerness to integrate into the society, with one of the goals not to be part of the lowest socio-economic class, wrongly advise their children to start working as early as possible, which, unfortunately, results in Kazakh-Germans continuing being at the lower end of the social economy. They view Gymnasium or University as something that should be attended by privileged children – not Kazakh – Germans! There is much more going on that cannot be discussed here in this little short comment. My question is how much does the returning to the “Motherland” make those people happy? Not much! Maybe just confused!

“But that is the common issue in immigration”, I was told once in a psychology seminar. That means that Kazakh-Germans are immigrants and are not really returning home. Maybe if we leave it by that, and change the hypocritical comments of German politicians stating that Kazakh-Germans are returning home to Germany, maybe then, it will make it easier for people. It least they will know what to expect – which will definitely not be the anticipation to see the “Dream Land”.

Reading this comment written by myself, it seems to me that I need this “optimism pill” used by my ancestors who survived in Kazakhstan (and did not in Siberia) to be able to survive in this “Dream Land Germany”. I genuinely admire their optimism. To my living and my already dead ancestors!

Sorry for such a long comment, it was not intentional. I hope it all made sense!

Thank you for reading
Helene Wolf