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German Policy Report 2010 ,
Source: BAMF
The Annual Policy Report 2010 gives an overview of the key political debates and developments in the fields of migration, asylum and integration in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010. In particular, it deals with the current status and the implementation of the measures described in the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, which the European Council adopted at its meeting on 15/16 October 2008, and the implementation of the five-year Stockholm Programme (2010 – 2014) with the title "An open and secure Europe serving and protecting the citizens", which the European Council adopted on 10/11 December 2009. By signing these two documents the European Union and its Member States have made a number of fundamental commitments in immigration and asylum policy. In addition to the information included in the main part of this report, a separate appendix will deal with the implementation of these commitments.
In 2010 the Federal Republic of Germany took a number of measures to implement the Pact and the Stockholm Programme. The most important developments were as follows:
- Germany participated in reception and allocation projects for persons who needed protection;
- the three large-scale integration policy procedures were continued – the National Integration Plan, the development and implementation of the nationwide Integration Programme, the dialogue in the framework of the German Islam Conference –; so-called integration contracts were introduced in a pilot programme and the Federal Integration Council was established;
- legislative measures were prepared to make the recognition of foreign professional degrees and qualifications easier.
Other key political and legal developments in the fields of migration, integration and asylum in 2010 were as follows:
- introduction of a bill dealing with certain questions of residence and asylum law, such as ways to combat forced marriages and better protect the victims of such marriages;
- decision of the conference of the ministers and senators of the interior of the Federal States to create a secure residence outlook for teenagers and adolescents whose deportation has been suspended, provided that they meet certain preconditions;
- signing and entry into force of a bilateral readmission agreement with the Republic of Kosovo.
Key migration and integration policy debates in 2010 focused on the following issues:
- lack of skilled labour, labour-market migration and ways to facilitate the immigration of foreign workers;
integration of immigrants and migrants; this debate was triggered by the publication of a controversial book.