Recently Germany become a destination of choice for migrants. Even before the European refugee crisis of 2015, Germany saw a large increase in the numbers of people seeking to settle within its borders, and its decision to accept as many as one million refugees from the Middle East and Africa will put a strain on the country’s social services.

German law requires that the children of migrants and refugees attend school. What impact will this influx of children have on the school system, and on the German language itself? To find out, we spoke with Barbara Schmenk, Professor of German at the University of Waterloo and an expert on DaF (a German acronym meaning the teaching of German as a second or foreign language) to find out more.

Listen to the interview here: