The Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration (Sachverständigenrat deutscher Stiftungen für Integration und
Migration - SVR) today presented its sixth Annual Report entitled
“Immigration Countries: Germany in an International Comparisonʺ in
Berlin.
The complete English version of the Annual Report will be published in summer 2015.
Key findings
The
Annual Report compares Germany's migration and integration policies
with the policies of selected EU countries as well as with traditional
immigration countries such as Canada and the USA. The first
section looks at issues related to immigration management while the
second section is dedicated to integration policy. Germany performs
better in these comparisons than the public discourse would lead one to
believe.
The
comparison arrives at a dual conclusion: it shows, on the one hand,
that Germany has now joined the ranks of progressive immigration
countries in an international comparison. Germany has made great
strides in many areas of migration management and integration policy in a
political and conceptual sense and its achievements are impressive
compared to traditional immigration countries – particularly in the area
of labour migration policy. The analysis also identifies, on the other
hand, deficits and failures in German and European policy, for example,
the lack of an overarching migration policy concept not only to the
outside world but also internally, as well as an urgently needed reform
of the citizenship policy and, above all, the need for reform of the
Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
Apart
from these kinds of concrete proposals for reform, the Annual Report
also clearly identifies the limits of learning from others. Germany
cannot simply transfer ‘blueprints’ developed in other countries for
three reasons: first, different country-specific political, economic,
cultural or social conditions call into question the recommendation
popular in the political and media discourse of simply importing a
policy – that was (apparently) successful somewhere else. Second,
Germany itself has become one of the pioneers of a modern migration
policy in areas such as labour market policy. Third, there is a tendency
towards convergence – with the result that the policies in many
immigration countries are drawing closer and becoming increasingly
similar.
Germany therefore has to find its own
path, one that is embedded in the overall conditions here and is guided
by the principle of safeguarding the country’s future. The Annual Report
provides several examples of the form this path could take.
With
a view to reforms of the Common European Asylum System, the SVR
proposes, for example, a compromise between two apparently
irreconcilable and opposing positions: at the core of the current debate
is the Dublin Principle that requires the first country of entry to be
responsible for the asylum process. Opponents of the Dublin scheme are
discussing a basic alternative system which is best known as free choice
under which the country of first entry would no longer be responsible
and it would be left to the refugees to decide which country to submit
their asylum petition in. The SVR describes a third path that brings
together elements of the Dublin scheme with the principle of free choice
and is designed to restore the CEAS's ability to function which is
currently very limited.
About the Expert Council
The
SVR is an independent expert council that provides policymakers in the
federal government, Laender and municipalities, as well as associations
and the interested general public, with research-based and practically
oriented recommendations. Its mission is to critically observe, provide
unbiased and reliable assessments and offer practically oriented advice.
The SVR also takes a stand on current issues of migration and
integration policy in an effort to introduce concrete arguments into the
political debate or give it new impetus.
The SVR
includes nine researchers from different disciplines and research
institutes: Prof. Dr. Christine Langenfeld (Chairwoman), Prof. Dr.
Ludger Pries (Deputy Chairman) and Prof. Dr. Gianni D’Amato, Prof. Dr.
Thomas K. Bauer, Prof. Dr. Wilfried Bos, Prof. Dr. Claudia Diehl (from
2015), Prof. Dr. Heinz Fassmann, Prof. Dr. Christian Joppke (from 2015),
Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu (until 2015), Prof. Dr. Ursula Neumann
(until 2015) and Prof. Dr. Hacı Halil Uslucan.
The
Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration is
based on an initiative of the Stiftung Mercator and the
VolkswagenStiftung and consists of seven member foundations. In
addition to the Stiftung Mercator and the VolkswagenStiftung, these
are: Bertelsmann Stiftung, Freudenberg Stiftung, Robert Bosch Stiftung,
Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and the Vodafone Foundation
Germany.
Further details about the SVR's work are available at http://www.svr-migration.de/
