efms Migration Report
September 2008 |  | | | |
 OECD: Germany in need
of more immigration The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has recommended Germany to pursue a long-term immigration policy
that takes into consideration future work force needs. Two working papers published recently
by the OECD ("International Migration Outlook", "Education at a
glance") have revealed that Germany will no longer be able to employ a restrictive
migration policy against the background of a work force pool that is expect to decline soon.
According to the OECD, the portion of this work force pool of the overall population will
decline by 2.5 per cent until 2020. At the same time, the number of persons migrating to
Germany is declining: In contrast to the increase of the number of immigrants by an average
of 5 per cent registered in the OECD area in 2006 compared to the previous year, this number
declined in Germany by 216,000 or 11 per cent over the same period. Therefore, a work force
shortage in Germany can hardly be avoided and will increasingly pose problems, according to
the OECD. The work force shortage could have a negative impact particularly in the
low-wage sector. Already today there would be shortages in areas such as the catering trade
or the health care for elderly persons. But also in the international competition for qualified
workers Germany would keep losing ground. Germany was hardly successful in attracting
and retaining highly qualified workers while at the same time an increasing number of
Germans left their home country.
FTD 10.09.08 // Die Welt
10.09.08 // BZ 11.09.08 // Die Welt 11.09.08
EU: Decision on
admittance of Iraqi refugees adjourned again On the occasion of a conference in
Brussels on 25 September 2008, the Ministers responsible for Justice and Home Affairs
adjourned again their decision on the admittance of refugees from Iraq until the end of
November. First of all, a delegation comprising representatives of the EU and the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wants to gather on site-information on the situation of
the minorities in the reception facilities in Syria and Jordan, the two countries neighbouring
Iraq. Representatives of the Churches, refugee organisations and from politics in Germany
appealed to the Federal Government to take an own decision irrespective of the decision of
the EU Ministers. Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) explained the
hesitating position by arguing that the efforts of Iraq to try to make people return to the
country should not be undermined. At the beginning of the year, Schäuble expressed
himself in favour of admitting particularly Iraqi Christians throughout Europe. Following a
visit of the Iraqi prime minister, Dschawad al Maliki, however, he revoked his position. On
the occasion of the conference also elements of the Pact on Immigration and Asylum were
agreed, which will be adopted in November.
FAZ 22.09.08 // BZ
24.09.08 // Die Welt 24.09.08 // Press release of Pro Asyl 25.09.08 // dpa 25.09.08 // FR
26.09.08 // KNA 26.09.08
First European Roma summit
Following an invitation of the European Commission and the French Council Presidency, the
first European Roma summit took place in Brussels in September 2008. It was attended by
500 representatives of EU institutions, governments, organisations of the civil society, of the
ethnic group of Roma and numerous representatives of the media. They talked about
improvements of the living conditions of the 10 to 12 million European Roma (the figures are
inconsistent). The president of the EU Commission, Manuel Barroso, said that the living
conditions of the Roma "marked by poverty, social exclusion and discrimination"
could not be accepted in the 21st century. The EU Commissioner responsible for Social
Affairs, Vladimir Spidla, explained the need behind the initiative by saying that the Roma
would be the only minority in Europe that collectively suffered discrimination. They would
be disadvantaged in their access to accommodation, education, labour and health care
services. Despite the fact that there were sufficient financing concepts and integration tools,
their implementation was insufficient. Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of Sinti
and Roma in Germany, called for stricter EU measures to fight racist attacks against Roma.
Moreover, the general fingerprinting and photographing of members of this ethnic group, as it
is practiced in Italy and tolerated by the EU, was sharply criticised. In contrast, the integration
policy as it has been practiced in Finland for many years, was given positive consideration
during the summit. For 100 years there would a representation of interests of the Roma in the
country, the integration of children to school would be successful and constant consultations
between representatives of the Roma as well as the government and the local authorities
contributed to this success, according to the Finish Roma representative Miranda
Vuolasrantas. The organisers of the EU summit were sharply criticised for the fact that they
had forgotten to invite an interpreter for the Romani language, which is considered by many
to be their mother tongue.
Süddeutsche Zeitung 17.9.2008
// Tageszeitung 18.9.2008 // Das Parlament 22.9.2008
Survey: Number of
children abandoned by labour migrants on the rise According to a survey of the
Foundation for European Law, about 100,000 Polish children are left by their parents in their
home villages while one or both of them worked in another European country. These
"EU orphans" are considered to constitute a growing social problem since lonely
and traumatised children whose contact to their parents has been considerably reduced or
even stopped could meanwhile be found in almost all kindergartens and schools. Also an
increase in juvenile delinquency could be observed. Many children would depend on relatives
or on themselves. The indifference of the politicians would be particularly disappointing, said
the chairman of the Foundation, Piotr Bajohr. Instead of offering these children help, the
standard excuse would rather be that such problem did not exist at all.
Die Tageszeitung 24.9.2008
Naturalisation tests
introduced The ordinance of the Federal Ministry of the Interior governing the
implementation of naturalisation tests has entered into force on 1 September. In this test,
immigrants must provide evidence of their knowledge of the German legal and social system
before being naturalised. The multiple choice test comprises 33 questions out of a pool of 310
questions. Of these, 17 questions must be answered correctly within one hour in order to pass
the test. Language skills on the first level of an independent ability to understand and use the
language are required. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is primarily
responsible for the implementation of the ordinance. The BAMF commissioned the adult
education centres of the Volkshochschule with the implementation of the preparation courses
and the language tests. However, the BAMF reserves the right to choose the questions to be
answered and to evaluate the tests. According to critics, this approach has extended the
naturalisation procedure to two to three months. Also the wording of the questions was
criticised. Sebastian Edathy, politician and member of the SPD party, said that many
questions were misunderstandable or superfluous and the test itself was "of a very poor
quality". Josef Winkler of the Green party added that the naturalisation test "was
a sign expressing mistrust and the will to deter applicants". However, the advantages of
one common test throughout Germany have been recognised as well.
Federal Government online 01.09.2008 // Frankfurter Rundschau 6.9.2008 //
Das Parlament 08.09.2008
Federal government to
abolish the obligation to register at schools The grand coalition made up of the
Union parties and the SPD plans to release teachers from their duty to inform the foreigners"
authorities about children who live illegally in Germany. With regard to the right on
education stipulated in the Children"s Rights Convention of the UN, the Churches and refugee
organisations have been demanding for many years to release public institutions from their
obligation to inform the authorities. The initiative has become possible following an opinion
shift in the Union parties, which previously had refused to take such step. Meanwhile, the
Union parties have come to the realisation that children could not be made responsible for the
decision and the living conditions of their parents, said CDU member Reinhard Grindel who
added that the removal of the obligation to inform the authorities had to be limited to school
attendance and should not be extended to general practitioners or social workers. The
implementation of the initiative, however, still needs the approval of the federal states.
taz 24.09.08
First conference of the
integration commissioners and ministers of the federal states For the first time, the
integration commissioners of the federal states met in Hanover on 30 September 2008 to hold
an expert conference on the subject of integration. The meeting, which will be held on a
regular basis from now on, is particularly to serve as a platform to align measures taken in the
integration policy. The integration senator of Berlin, Heidi Knake-Werner (of the Left party)
said that the aim would be to reach in the integration policy more reliability also with the
Federal Government. At the moment, particularly the topics of naturalisation policy and
double citizenship would be in the focus of the talks.
taz online
30.09.08
Debate on cancellation of
anti-Islamisation congress The cancellation at short notice of a planned
"anti-Islamisation congress" on the Heumarkt square in Cologne triggered off a
debate on restrictions of the freedom of assembly and speech. Following riots of autonomous
left-wing extremists, the police cancelled the congress arguing it could not guarantee the
safety of the participants of the congress and the about 5,000 peaceful demonstrators. The
anti-Islamic "citizens" movement" Pro Köln had invited representatives of
right-wing populist parties from all over Europe to attend the convention planned from 19- 20
September 2008. Among the invited were members of the Belgium Vlaams Belang, the
Austrian FPÖ party, the Italian Lega Nord as well as the French Front National.
Among other things the convention was aimed at creating the basis for the foundation of a
European right-wing party. Pro Köln called the incident a "disastrous failure of
the police" and announced to bring an action before the administrative court. Some
experts expressed themselves very critical about the cancellation of the congress. The expert
in constitutional law Prof. Josef Isensee said for example that the prohibition of the
demonstration constituted an infringement of the freedom of speech and of assembly. The
police was not to act as a censor of opinions but rather had to guarantee peaceful framework
conditions for the expression of opposed opinions side by side and that every one can
exercise his or her rights. Representatives of the political parties welcomed the cancellation
almost unanimously considering it a "victory of the citizens" courage", as it was
expressed by the prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rütgers
(CDU).
taz 19.09.08 // Die Welt 21.09.08 // Die Welt 23.09.08 //
Die Zeit 25.09.08
Struggle for religious
interpretation competence - KRM dissociates itself from professor for Islam The
Coordination Council of the Muslims (KRM, in its German abbreviation) has withdrawn its
support to the Centre for Religious Studies (CRS) at the University of Münster. There,
also teachers for Islamic instruction classes are being trained. By arguing there was a
discrepancy between the principles of the Islamic doctrine and the positions published by the
Chair of the CRS and scholar of Islam, Sven Muhammad Kalisch, the KRM, an umbrella
organisation of Islamic religious associations in Germany, cancelled its participation in the
advisory council of the CRS. Moreover, the KRM announced to stop recommending studies
at the CRS. In detail, the KRM criticised the doubts of the academic about the historic
existence of the prophet Muhammad and about Koran as God"s direct word on Earth. In reply,
Kalisch said that one of the big challenges for Islam today consisted of the dealing with
modern historical-critical methods. It would be regrettable that Islamic associations did not
want to face this challenge. His own task, however, would be to enable the students to
critically reflect things and to think independently, said Kalisch. Nonetheless he agreed with
the university"s management to no longer train future teachers for Islamic instruction classes.
More than 80 academics, authors and representatives of religious groups expressed
themselves in support of Kalisch: In a declaration of solidarity they reproached the KRM to
dissociate itself from an "open and indepedent science" and to "let pass by
a historical chance of shaping the future of Islam and the society in Germany with a man who
carried hopes".
Council 08.09.08 // FR 12.09.08 Die Welt
online 13.09.08 // Der Spiegel online 22.09.08 // Focus 22.09.08 // NZ 22.09.08 // FAZ
27.09.98
Number of naturalisations
further declining According to the Federal Statistical Office, the number of persons
who acquired the German citizenship in 2007 has further declined. Since its peak value of
186,700 naturalised persons in 2000, the figure has almost continuously fallen to reach
113,000 in the previous year. The new German citizens are coming particularly from Turkey
(25 per cent), Serbia and Montenegro (9.3 per cent), Poland (4.8 per cent), the Ukraine (3.9
per cent) and Iraq (3.6 per cent). The portion of Turkish citizens of the naturalised persons
has declined considerably over the past seven years and has fallen from 44.4 per cent to 25
per cent. The federal states with the largest number of naturalised persons are North
Rhine-Westphalia followed by Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
OVB 05.09.08 // Destatis press release of 03.07.08
Asylum statistics
In September 2008, a total of 1,965 persons have submitted a petition for political
asylum in Germany. This is an increase of 18.4 per cent (+306 persons) over the month
before and also compared to September 2007 with an increase of 10.9 per cent (+194
persons). The main countries of origin in September were Iraq (615), Turkey (107), Vietnam
(98), Kosovo (97) followed by Afghanistan (88). In September, the Federal Office for
Migration and Refugees decided on 1,743 asylum applications. A total of 674 persons (38.7
per cent) were recognised as refugees under the Geneva Refugee Convention. These included
12 persons (0.7 per cent) who were recognised as entitled to asylum under Art. 16a of the
German Basic Law, and 662 persons (38 per cent) protected under § 3 of the Asylum
Procedure Act in conjunction with § 60 (1) of the Residence Act. The applications of
520 persons (29.8 per cent) have been rejected. The cases of a further 495 persons (28.4 per
cent) have been closed for other reasons (e.g. due to suspensions of asylum procedures
because persons have withdrawn their applications).
Press release
of the BMI 14.10.08
September 2008 | | | | |
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