IMMIGRANTS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT:

Germany's experience with integrating foreign workers, particularly the country's large Turkish minority, has proved difficult. Today, many government officials and business leaders are examining Germany's culture, eager to do what it takes to be hospitable and acknowledging that they have not always been so.

"We need to become a welcoming culture," said Guido Rebstock, head of the jobs agency in Schwäbisch Hall, repeating a phrase that has become part of the vocabulary here. "The firms have to help the workers with more than their jobs."

Mr. Rebstock said the issue was driven home recently as the town contemplated its first-grade enrollment. In the last 13 years, the entering classes have shrunk by about 30 percent. "The demographic theme has definitely arrived here," he said.

Last year, though, even while deaths once again exceeded births, the German population grew for the first time since 2002, thanks to a net immigration of 240,000 people, nearly double the 128,000 net gain in 2010. Countries like Poland and Romania sent the most, but German government statistics showed thousands more coming from the crisis-stricken southern nations.

To the unemployed masses in the south, Germany's needs are a relief. In Baden-Württemberg, the unemployment rate is just 4 percent. The country seems like "El Dorado," the legendary lost city of gold, said one Spanish engineer still searching for a job in Schwäbisch Hall. For the most part, engineers are being offered twice the salaries they could make in Spain, he said, though taxes are higher in Germany.

They generally find Germany more attractive than alternatives like South America and Australia because it is so close to home. Some say they expect to make lives here, but many say they are still hoping to return home soon.

Many of the Spaniards say the work environment in Germany takes getting used to, with Germans far more direct than Spanish people and much quieter. No one makes personal calls during business hours, for instance. But the work day is much shorter.

They were surprised that they were expected to greet co-workers each morning with formal handshakes and to call colleagues "Herr" and "Frau" (Mr. and Ms.). Impromptu hallway conversations over work issues were cut off by Germans suggesting it would be more appropriate to schedule a formal meeting.

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