Ukrainians in Germany

The Ukrainian community of Germany (Ukrainian Українці в Німеччині ), with about 40,000 members of a relatively small but significant community of people of Ukrainian origin, they made 2009 0.1 % of the German population from; about the same magnitude as the Ukrainians in neighboring Poland. Germany Ukrainians still have numerous institutions and organizations formed as the Central Association of Ukrainians in Germany and the unification of the Ukrainian diaspora in Germany. Although most Ukrainians are German citizens in Germany, a large proportion of them Ukrainian students from Russia and Ukraine in Germany are in an academic teaching.

Most Ukrainians living in Baden -Württemberg, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. In addition to German, many Ukrainians also master their native language Ukrainian and Russian as a foreign language. Most are Orthodox Christians of the Kiev Patriarchate, and there are also numerous Jewish and Catholic communities.

Tourist visas scandal

In 1999 there was a conflict with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who introduced conditions for citizens of the former Soviet Union to obtain German visas. Many people rejected the assertion that enabled thousands to immigrate illegally in Germany due to abuse of the guaranteed visas. The majority of Ukrainians who live in Germany with a scholarship, are here with such visas, which the controversy additionally intensified.

Some Ukrainian organizations accused in Germany German racism and prejudice, and condemned the conventional wisdom that Ukrainians are only here to work illegally ( despite the large number of ethnic Ukrainians that German citizens are second or third generation ).

Personalities

• Ivan Bahrjanyj (1907-1963), writer and politician in exile, lived from 1945 in the Federal Republic