Germany recognises need for immigration

After years of political wrangling, Germany's political parties
have finally agreed a legislative bill on immigration reform in the
country. The first ever immigration law includes measures to
attract highly skilled foreigners, calls for better efforts to
integrate foreigners into German society, reforms the rules on
granting asylum and will make it easier and quicker to expel any
foreigners deemed to be a security threat.

The idea of a controlled immigration scheme was first proposed
by Chancellor Schröder in 2000 and has gone through extensive
debate over the past four years, finally gaining the approval of
all the parties on 17 June 2004.

In an interview with the Financial Times Deutschland, Interior
minister Otto Schily says the law shows that Germany has put behind
it the self-deluded idea that it is not a country of immigration,
pointing out the fact that there are 7.3 millions foreigners in
Germany out of a total population of 82 million.

Opening the doors to immigration will be linked to the detailed
needs of the labour market. The German minister points to the fact
that before allowing wide access to the German labour market to
third country nationals, Germany must lift labour market market
restriction for the new Member States.

An interesting aspect of the bill is the goal of increasing the
successful integration of foreigners into German society. The
government has agreed to cover most of the costs of language
courses to help foreigners become more quickly integrated, which
may cost the country between EUR 215 and 235 million. Otto Schilly
stresses that newcomers must "integrate and assimilate" themselves
into German culture. He stresses that "if a foreigner does not
respect equality between men and women, this person is in
contradiction with the Constitution and cannot live in
Germany".

Integration is becoming a hot debate at EU level and the Dutch
Presidency has said it “will strive to achieve agreement on the
goal and basic principles of integration policy”. Current national
policies diverge widely with some countries backing mandatory
measures such as language and citizenship classes, while others
favour a more voluntary approach.

Non-assigned links

• LinksDossier: Immigration policy
• Kommission: Flash Eurobarometer- Umfrage zu Justiz und Inneres: EU-Bürger für eine gemeinsame Asyl- und Einwanderungspolitik (Pressemitteilung, 8.März 2004)
• Statewatch: EU asylum and immigration policy
• Caritas: The integration of immigrants and refugees in Europe: we need workers - human beings will come
• Center for Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford : The Challenges of Integration for the EU