Background information

The article “End all immigration controls – they’re a sign we value money more than people” by Gary Younge mentions the Berlin Wall (l. 2). Here are some background knowledge which can help you get a better understanding of the topic. 

The Berlin Wall was a concrete construction that divided Berlin, the German capital, into West Berlin and East Berlin from 1961 to 1981. The Wall also functioned as an ideological division, as it was built by the German Democratic Republic – or East Germany – and aimed to prevent the West from working against the socialist state. Another purpose of the Berlin Wall was to prevent mass emigration from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. Before the building of the Berlin Wall, tens of thousands of refugees escaped East Germany through Berlin. The Wall stopped immigran...