Home> Archive> 2022> Volume 12 Number 3 (Aug. 2022)
IJSSH 2022 Vol.12(3): 196-202 ISSN: 2010-3646
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2022.V12.1091

The Butterfly Effect Looms over Muslims Immigrants and Refugees: How Small Changes in Policy Created Big Challenges for their Lives in Germany

Stella Ai Zhong

Abstract—In 2016, during the 11th year of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, Germany had ushered a series of changes in immigration policy, which affected indirectly the daily lives of Muslim immigrants living in the country and, particularly, those who applied for a refugee status [1]. This paper focuses on how these changes in the migration policy, although proposed to foster integration, provoked a significant effect in protecting human rights from Muslim immigrants; hence, the “butterfly effect” (Dictionary Cambridge, “Butterfly effect”). These policies are widely recognized as a considerable benefit and openness to Muslim immigrants. However, this paper will demonstrate that, in practice, there were positive and negative changes in human rights protection, especially for these immigrants and particularly for refugees, since 2016. This paper contrasts different policies for immigrants and refugees and challenges the common understanding of these new policies, revealing difficulties such as cultural identity integration and diminishing time for the resident permit. At last, the paper also shows the trend of right-wing political parties in Germany, unfolding what the public opinion and other studies debate on the matter.   Led by the findings of prominent international relations scholars, it concludes that the new” Integration Law,” adopted by Merkel’s administration in 2016, hinders the integration of Muslim immigrants into local society. The results of this new policy for the protection of the human rights of Muslim immigrants will be primary, and the real impact of these policies is still to be foreseen in the years to come, and this may impact studies that investigate the relationship between immigration and terrorism.

Index Terms—Germany, human-rights, immigration, muslims.

Jie Huang is with the Pennsylvania State University, USA (e-mail: jbh5820@psu.edu).

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Cite: Stella Ai Zhong , "The Butterfly Effect Looms over Muslims Immigrants and Refugees: How Small Changes in Policy Created Big Challenges for their Lives in Germany ," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 196-202, 2022.


Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

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