The Expert Council’s 2014 Annual Report assesses Germany’s transformation to a modern immigration country over the last five years and identifies a considerable need for action that still exists in some areas. While overall integration policies have produced mixed results, the liberalisation of labour migration policies has opened up numerous possibilities for the immigration of highly skilled workers. Despite these changes, an overall strategy for migration policy is still missing. In the Report, the Expert Council offers a number of recommendations to further develop integration and migration policies, e.g. a modern Citizenship Act that allows multiple citizenship even in the case of naturalisation. When it comes to the equal institutional treatment of Islam, the Expert Council sees progress but also setbacks. Within the European Asylum System a binding burden-sharing mechanism has to be developed that not only helps countries that are financially and logistically overwhelmed, but also requires less affected countries to receive refugees. For the third time, the Annual Report featured results from SVR’s Integration Barometer. More than 5,600 people with and without a migration background were interviewed about their perceptions of Germany’s integration climate, intercultural openness, the institutional equality of Islam and religious diversity. Both migrants and the native population continue to hold a more favourable opinion of integration than mass media coverage would suggest.

Sachverständigenrat deutscher Stiftungen für Integration und Migration

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