It is a bitter irony that Germany, the nation that gave the world the DIN-Norm and standardized everything from paper sizes to industrial screws, cannot standardize the definition of its own people.

The definition of Migrationshintergrund (literally “Migration Background”) is a bureaucratic hallucinations that varies by year, by Federal State, and by political mood. In one state, you might be a statistical migrant; in the next state over, you might not.

Consider the “Legacy User” problem: When the definition changes (as it has multiple times), the files do not update. Does the state send out letters to those who no longer fit the new criteria, saying: “Congratulations, you have been promoted to ‘Pure German’”? Hell no! Once the label is applied, it calcifies. The definition might evolve for the statistician, but the stigma remains fixed for the citizen.

This hallucination creates a statistical fog that makes international comparison impossible. How can one compare integration quotas between France (which looks at citizenship) and Germany (which looks at blood/parents/grandparents depending on the day)?

The status of the immigrant in Germany is exactly like the word used to define them: Unclear, unstable, and impossible to get rid of.