The German Experience

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The German Experience

• By Steven Hunt

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Historical Overview

• The Two Migrations

• Native Germans migrated from the early 19th
  century to 1870 in large families, with enough
  wealth to invest in plots of land.
• - Volga Germans, however, from the eponymous
  river in Russia, comprised most of the
  immigration after that, settling largely in the
  Pacific Northwest. These people were mostly rural
  and impoverished.

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German Immigration of the Past

• As whites, the Germans especially the earlier
  families faced little oppression. However, as
  new citizens of a nation heavily influenced by
  English language and culture, the Germans would
  remain as a subculture, influencing Americas
  history through business, innovations, and the
  large amount of production that their vast
  immigration numbers supplied.
• The average German crossed the Atlantic Ocean to
  settle in the Northeast or Midwest, but the Volga
  Germans went around the world to ultimately end
  in the Northwest.

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Modern German Immigration

• In the past few decades, immigration has become a
  more formal, systematic process. Consulates such
  as the German Consulate in San Francisco sponsor
  many acquaintance organizations.

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The German-American School of Portland

• One such organization is the German-American
  School of Portland. (http//www.gspdx.com/)
  Located on the outskirts of Beaverton, this
  non-profit school provides education in both
  American and German contexts, serving as a
  humanizing reminder of German culture to
  descendants and non-Germans alike.

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A Snapshot of German Immigration

• Germans were a primary immigrant population in
  the last 200 years.
• Immigrant groups consisted of native Germans, who
  were wealthy and settled in the East, and
  Volgans, who were financially weak but skilled in
  agriculture and settled in the Northwest.
• Germans faced little subjugation and were largely
  grouped with other whites.
• Well-funded German community programs exist today
  to make German immigration integration less
  difficult.