This study demonstrates that the German government's decision to receive a large number of refugees is largely motivated by two economic factors. The first is the significant decline in the birth rate in Germany and its projected impact on the country's economy. The second is the expectation that the strength of the German economy will facilitate integration. This vision of the relationship between the economy and integration contradicts the discourse critics of immigration policy in Germany and Europe embrace about the failure to integrate Muslim immigrants who came in the 1960s. Research shows that there are significant differences between the first and second wave of immigration given that there was no integration policy in the first case. The government has since put in place an integration plan that emphasizes the importance of education and the job market. This article concludes by demonstrating the similarities between anti-immigrant and orientalist discourses.