Zur Integration von Flüchtlingen

Abstract

"Through the increase in wars, civil wars and political persecution, the number of refugees rose worldwide by the end of 2014 to 59.5 million people. Roughly a third of the refugees are living outside their countries of origin. Moreover, the centres of conflict have increasingly shifted to the Near East and Africa and, with this, to the direct neighbourhood of the European Union (EU). 571,000 first instance asylum applications were registered in the EU in 2014, 173,000 of them in Germany. All in all, according to information from the Central Foreigners' Register, 605,000 asylum seekers, persons entitled to asylum, and refugees were living in Germany in April 2015, of whom 266,000 were recognized as persons entitled to asylum and refugees or received subsidiary protection. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is expecting 400,000 Asylum applications in the course of 2015. However, after the rise in the number of asylum applicants in July 2015 to 79,000 persons, this prognosis can probably not be adhered to anymore: by the end of 2015 it could be a question of 600,000 to 700,000 people. Up to 20 per cent could be allotted to North Rhine-Westphalia. Independently of the exact development of these figures, accommodation, mid- and long-term integration of these persons into the educational system and the labour market, and their social participation represent an enormous challenge. This challenge can only be successfully met if all levels of the federal system in Germany - the State itself, the individual Federal States, and the communities - and other actors such as companies, trade unions and civil society organisations work closely together. The motion of the parliamentary parties the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens) as well as the motion for a resolution from the parliamentary party the FDP (Free Democratic Party) refer to integration policy measures that lie partly in the jurisdiction of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and its communities and partly in the jurisdiction of the Federal State of Germany as a whole. From a labour market policy perspective, the measures suggested are almost without exception all sensible, even if their effectiveness may be judged to vary. Against the background of the dimension of the problem that has been exacerbated by the most recent development in the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees, these measures can only provide limited help. From the perspective of labour market and migration policy, more basic policy changes are necessary and these are sketched in the first section of this Statement. For the most part they lie in the jurisdiction of the German Federal State. However, as most of the measures are joint tasks, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has considerable possibilities to influence matters. For this reason, these measures will also be discussed within the framework of this Statement. After this, the individual integration policy measures proposed in the motions of the SPD and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen as well as the FDP will be considered." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Brücker, H. (2015): Zur Integration von Flüchtlingen. Öffentliche Anhörung des Ausschusses für Arbeit, Gesundheit und Soziales sowie des Integrationsausschusses im Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen am 26.08.2015. (IAB-Stellungnahme 05/2015), Nürnberg, 15 p.