ABSTRACT
To be an asylum seeker in Germany today is to join the significant ranks of people categorised as 'foreigners' or 'aliens' who find themselves as economic, social and cultural outcasts; fringe dwellers in a society undergoing its own identity crisis. The consequences of the historical marginalisation of immigrants and the more recent efforts at integrating these newcomers in ways which are palatable enough to the majority of Germans, is a substantial task for the unified Federal Republic of Germany. Asylum seekers are taken into account in the official immigration debates in Germany, though until their status is determined, they remain in a sense 'in-between' people, figures in the shadows, leading a suspended half life while they seek the official status that will grant them protection, residence and the right to work, to education and other aspects of human development.
