There's No Place Like Home! Migration - Choice or Necessity?

Looking at the past fifty years of the history of migration toward Europe, it is clear that it was almost always uncoordinated. The host countries had no plans in place for a structured and intentional integration. That holds true not only for the millions of "guest workers", but also for almost all the migrants in the world. Which makes it all the more incredible that in the majority of cases, after the difficult initial years (violence, drugs, ghettoisation), years and decades of positive development followed. Today the majority of these "cases" are success stories, having transformed each corresponding country of destination in a positive way. But these developments do not happen of their own accord and above all there is no guarantee that the next 50 years of migration will be equally serendipitous.
Today there are more migrants travelling towards Europe than ever before and the numbers will continue to rise. In the face of these highly topical developments this evening of programmes is dedicated to one of the key questions of our present and near future: can the integration of large numbers of migrants succeed in Europe?

In the form of an investigative examination and in cooperation with the migration expert Doug Sanders we travelled to the migrant neighbourhoods of various different European metropolises including Istanbul, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. The story arc ranges from the personal stories of individual immigrants all the way to larger urban planning issues and political concepts that are necessary in order to make a success story out of the tale of migration. We go in search of answers, to find out why integration sometimes works so well and why it is sometimes a dead-end street. The documentary CHANGING EUROPE takes as its theme the opportunities that successful integration offers as one of the decisive factors for a peaceful and prosperous future in Europe. In the current situation here in Europe we should all be aware that success is by no means a given.