Organisation and partners
Given the varied specialist applications with very individual designs that are required, IT has positioned itself innovatively and skilfully in the Federal Office in a wide-ranging spectrum.
Originally concentrating on the maintenance and care of one specialist application, the IT Group has in the meantime developed into a skilled team that has designed and implemented very different specialist applications in the areas of asylum, integration and migration. Specialist requirements are usually implemented using the department's own staff and supported by external staff only to reduce peak loads and when there are very specialised requirements. The entire cycle is managed by well qualified in-house staff dealing with the specification of the specialist requirements through to design, development, testing, commissioning and maintenance.
In developing specialist applications, attention is paid to open standards and ensuring that the modules offer a high degree of reusability. In the Federal Office, development is practised under service-oriented architecture (SOA). In many cases interfaces to other authorities are implemented by the Federal Office, and applications and application components are made available to external partners and authorities.
Data networks and specialist applications
The Federal Office has a state-of-the-art, networked IT landscape. Very different specialist applications are used on an open source basis, ensuring data exchange via standardised interfaces both within the Federal Office itself with its 2,200 (approx.) staff and with partners on line. Partners include other Federal authorities, regional and local authorities and data processing centres.
With the distribution of responsibilities to 24 sites and the headquarters, IT in the Federal Office was faced with the task of handling rapid yet economic data exchange when designing new applications as far back as the 1990s. The experience gained in doing this now benefits the development of applications used to connect third parties. For example, the specialist applications used to manage, implement and control integration measures involve approximately 690,000 people and approximately 35,000 courses. Over 290 local foreign affairs offices are now using these applications on line (figures as at January 2009). Integration and language course are developed with approximately 2,000 course providers using these systems.
Applications to acquire German citizenship with naturalisation tests were used by more than 18,000 participants in the 3rd/4th quarter of 2008.
The specialist information portal, MILo, with expanded functionality has provided information about migration, asylum, integration, temporary protection and repatriation to over 4,000 registered users throughout Europe and in many languages. Anyone can use the basic information – which constitutes public documents – in this system.
Partners
In 2010, a joint exchange standard XAusländer was created based on XML for the foreign nationals system. The project was implemented in conjunction with government, Länder and local authorities and the co-ordination office XÖV. The project is managed by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
The Federal Office offers services to the local foreign affairs offices for automated data exchange based on a service-oriented architecture to plan and implement integration courses.
A foreign nationals information portal was developed together with representatives from the government and Länder using a prototype. The aim is to provide bundled information to all local foreign affairs offices and later to federal and regional ministries.
Interested regional authorities can use the MILo information system to access information about migration, asylum, integration, temporary protection and repatriation. MILo is particularly well used in the area of justice (courts) at Land level.
The asylum process is supported in the Federal Office by a workflow and document management system. The secure and seamless transfer of electronic documents in the asylum process has been tested with courts in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.
For its web-based geo-data information system Web-GIS, the Federal Office co-operates with the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy by using the geodata offered via web services. This application represents another stage within Germany's geo data infrastructure (GDI-DE).
The Federal Office has taken over implementation tasks as part of the European Social Fund (ESF). Preparing and developing the programme takes place in conjunction with the Federal Ministry for Work and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the European Commission. Quality-assured data are prepared for automatic transfer into the BMAS's IT system using an in-house application. In so doing, integrated IT support is provided for a business process that transcends various different levels.
The Federal Office has already implemented the objectives of the European Union's Hague Programme and connected the partner authorities from 29 European states and the European Commission to MILo, its countries of origin database. In return, the BAMF receives information about countries of origin from its partner authorities.
Through the European Country of Origin Sponsorship (ECS) system, the Federal Office, with its Asylum and Migration Information Centre, is the initiator and a member of a European sponsorship system. The European states involved as "sponsors" make their country-specific knowledge for one or several countries of origin available to their partners for the purposes of pooling information in keeping with the principle "one for all". The Federal Office's MILo system is the technical platform used for the exchange of information.
