German Corona-Emigrants in the Paraguayan Economy. An Analysis of the Team Compatibility of Germans and Paraguayans under Paraguayan Management

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, , language: English, abstract: This paper will shed light on the challenges, hurdles and opportunities of German workers in Paraguayan teams in relation to the Corona pandemic. In 2021 alone, according to the statistics of the German immigration authorities, about eleven hundred Germans decided to officially emigrate to Paraguay. Thus, Paraguay is suddenly among the most popular German destinations for emigration.
Since mid-March 2020, the Corona pandemic has kept the entire world on tenterhooks, and governments worldwide have been faced with the unique and special challenge of preserving human and civil rights while halting a highly contagious, ever-evolving virus. The balancing act between easing the burden on health systems and securing popular support was very difficult for many governments. Citizen frustration and discontent, coupled with fake news, radical right-wing groups and conspiracy theory associations, caused riots, violence and, most importantly, a loss of voter confidence in politics in many countries and cities.

Following the introduction, the reader is guided through three main chapters. Chapter two begins by drawing on the scientific foundations for this work. First, the cultural dimensions according to the GLOBE study are presented. For all nine dimensions, a brief comparison between Germans and Paraguayans is already presented. Then, Tuckman's model of team development and maintenance will be used. In the third chapter of the thesis, the Latin American leadership style that German employees can expect in the field is presented based on the GLOBE study.

The author then takes the reader through the formation and leadership of a Paraguayan-German team under Paraguayan leadership using Tuckman's different phases and addresses the potentially problematic interactions of the two nationalities in each phase using the cultural dimensions explained in chapter two. Particular attention is paid to the mostly conservative to radical right-wing political attitudes of the German emigrants. Chapter five concludes on the opportunities and hurdles faced by German emigrants in Paraguay, including a brief appreciation of the skilled labor situation in Paraguay, and provides an outlook on the future development of emigrants.