Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Patterns and Implications of Migration and Rebordering
- 1 Do Migrants Think Differently about Migration? An Experimentum Crucis for Explaining Attitudes on Migration
- 2 Fencing in the Boundaries of the Community: Migration, Nationalism and Populism in Hungary
- 3 Rethinking Refugee Integration: The Importance of Core Values for Cultural Debate in Germany
- 4 The Unfolding of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Turkey: From Temporariness to Permanency
- 5 The Middle Eastern Refugee Crisis and the So-Called Islamic State: Motivations of Iraqi Yazidis for Migrating to Europe
- 6 Current Migration Trends in Russia: The Role of the CIS Region Twenty Years after the Collapse of the Soviet Union
- 7 The North Amazon Border: Haitian Flow to Brazil and New Policies
- 8 Macedonian Refugees from the Greek Civil War: From Separation to a Transnational Community
- Index
3 - Rethinking Refugee Integration: The Importance of Core Values for Cultural Debate in Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Patterns and Implications of Migration and Rebordering
- 1 Do Migrants Think Differently about Migration? An Experimentum Crucis for Explaining Attitudes on Migration
- 2 Fencing in the Boundaries of the Community: Migration, Nationalism and Populism in Hungary
- 3 Rethinking Refugee Integration: The Importance of Core Values for Cultural Debate in Germany
- 4 The Unfolding of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Turkey: From Temporariness to Permanency
- 5 The Middle Eastern Refugee Crisis and the So-Called Islamic State: Motivations of Iraqi Yazidis for Migrating to Europe
- 6 Current Migration Trends in Russia: The Role of the CIS Region Twenty Years after the Collapse of the Soviet Union
- 7 The North Amazon Border: Haitian Flow to Brazil and New Policies
- 8 Macedonian Refugees from the Greek Civil War: From Separation to a Transnational Community
- Index
Summary
INTERNATIONALLY, GERMANY IS increasingly perceived as a major actor in integration policy, particularly as it has recently accepted many asylum seekers and had intense debates on their integration. From 2015 to 2017, nearly 1.4 million people applied for asylum in Germany and around 45 per cent of those received a protected status and legitimate right to remain (BAMF 2017: 48–50). The mass arrival of asylum seekers in such a short time span has rekindled an old debate on German cultural identity and approaches to the integration of foreigners into German culture. Much of the debate is sparked by the concern to preserve German identity in a process of acculturation. The process implies a confrontation with the identification of German core values and has rekindled a discussion on a ‘guiding culture’ (Leitkultur) and a ‘welcoming culture’ (Willkommenskultur). Beyond that, the mass arrival of refugees has had various socio-political implications and caused new developments in the German political and cultural setting.
Given that the integration debate in Germany is focusing on finding durable solutions where the host society and the refugee can peacefully coexist, this chapter focuses on the core parts of the integration debate. It proceeds as follows: the first section highlights definitions of the term ‘integration’ and notes the lack of a unique understanding of the term among different actors. The second section reviews refugee integration in Germany and shows that the predominant factor in various German definitions of integration is the refugees’ willingness to internalise German identity, learn the language and seek employment. The third section focuses on the debate about integration and highlights how it is unclear what culture refugees should integrate into. The fourth and last section proposes ways to rethink German integration policies, arguing for applied observational research and a human rights perspective. As such, this chapter identifies the notion of integration as a lasting question with no definite answer, but suggests instead that integration is a learning process, which should continuously be observed through empirical studies and future scenario planning.
Defining integration
Although it lacks a formal, universally accepted definition, the notion of ‘integration’ is frequently used in the refugee context. The term is oft en used to frame the political means for dealing with the consequences of immigration.
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- Transnational Migration and Border-MakingReshaping Policies and Identities, pp. 76 - 93Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2020