America – a country that mesmerizes and fascinates us, or might repel and perhaps irritate us, but for sure a country that evokes strong emotions either way around the globe!
Many of my generation grew up with an idolized image of America, as the nation of freedom and abundant possibilities and opportunities. That’s what we’ve heard from our parents. The USA helped Germany after the war to get back on its feet and become a competitive nation among Europe once more, and our parents didn’t forget this!
Even little things had made a big impact. My mother still remembers when she and her sister were getting candy and their first chewing gum ever from American G.I.s stationed in Germany right after the war. They were young kids starved not only for food but attention and hope. And America gave them and many others back the hope for a better & brighter future. America, became the symbol for a better life!
Immigration to the US from Germany was on a “high” after the war of course, then declined some, but interestingly enough among our younger generation emigration is “in” again, not only to the U.S. but to all over the world. Be it that the global market makes the USA once more an attractive place to live in, or that our children having spent time in foreign countries for perfecting their language skills are so intrigued by their exchange country and culture that they want to live there eventually. As a student exchange destination the USA has consistently been among the favorites. Oftentimes students, who have spent some time in the USA as a teenager or during college yearn to come back to the U.S. later on and wish to make America their home.
Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: The world definitely grew closer together, and Germans undoubtedly love to travel and seek adventure elsewhere in the world. The USA certainly remains an attractive destination for many of them.
Happy German-American Day!
Photo Credit: ©CaliforniaGermans.com
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Articles of Interest:
https://robertknoche.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/warum-wandern-viele-deuts1.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American#Contemporary_period