Over the course of the second half of the twentieth century and continuing into the present, the experience of migration has continually been identified as the starting point for debates surrounding German nationalism and identity. The massive movement of refugees, expellees and soldiers in the aftermath of the Second World War, the importation of foreign nationals as contract laborers, and the emigration of East Germans to the West all influenced the way in which both newly formed German states constructed conceptions of what it meant to be "German" from the ground up in the ideologically divided climate of the Cold War.

The internal migration that accompanied the collapse of the border between East and West Germany in November 1989 was unprecedented in scale, as well as in its impact on West German public opinion of their "brothers and sisters" from the East. The internal migration of East German laborers and students to the West, as well as West German managers and entrepreneurs to the East brought the former citizens of the Cold War German nations into close contact for the first time in 40 years. As it became evident that formal unification would only slow the pace of movement and not halt migration outright, the continuing significance of movement across the spectral frontier of the former Iron Curtain cane to symbolize the seemingly insurmountable differences that have continued to haunt relations between East and West Germans well into the twenty-first century.

Drawing on migration and demographic statistics published by the German Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), public opinion surveys and research published by German, British and American demographers, economists and sociologists, this research indicates that there has been an intimate connection between the progression of migration within Germany and the transformation of debates surrounding East and West German identities from the end of the Second World War well into the twenty-first century. An analysis of migration data from 1989 to 2004 reveals that regional movement was highly segregated by gender and age group. In particular, over the last two decades the majority of emigration from the East to the West has been young, educated and female. This trend has contributed to the demographic decline in the five eastern states by stalling an already low birthrate and exacerbating the so-called "brain drain" of skilled workers from the region. An examination of the evolution of West German public discourse concerning mobility and regional difference reveals that the continuing importance of migration in the two decades since the collapse of the border has brought to the fore anxieties concerning political stability, economic viability and the nature of German identity in the shadow of the Second World War.