The decade now approaching its end was characterised in Germany by profound political, legislative and institutional changes with regard to integration policy.
Approaches to integration monitoring in Germany
/ 2 Minuten zu lesen
Such changes include, for example, the reform of the citizenship law which came into force in 2000, the introduction of integration courses throughout Germany as a result of the Immigration Law (2005) and the adoption of the National Integration Plan (2007). In this context, the question increasingly arises as to whether and how to determine the successes and failures of Germany´s integration policy. This is exemplified by the idea expressed in the Federal Government´s declaration on the National Integration Plan that "successful integration policy must be measured by clear indicators ... These need to be reviewed on a regular basis and become a foundation for continuous reporting and evaluation"
This leads into the subject of the present policy brief, the development of so-called "integration monitoring" that has experienced a boom in Germany in recent years. It concerns the attempt to formulate statements about the state and changes in immigrant integration by means of regularly collated statistical parameters (indicators
This paper does not discuss corresponding developments in other countries or on a European level, although they do provide important reference points for Germany. In December 2009, the Swedish EU presidency presented for the first timespecific recommendations for common European integration indicators in the areas of occupation, education, social inclusion and active citizenship
Susanne Worbs is a researcher at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).