4 - 2002
Editorial
On June 20th, 2002, President Rau of the German Federal Republic signed a new law on immigration. It is intended to regulate immigration and the integration of foreigners into German society, and to protect refugees. This law was strongly controversial both in the Parliament and in the public sphere.
This law is supposed to come into effect on January 1th, 2003. But it could be delayed by a petition to the Constitutional Court, brought by six of the German federal states which are governed by the more conservative national opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union. These petitioners feel that the law on immigration was adopted by the second chamber of Parliament in an unconstitutional manner.
The new law marks the recognition that Germany is a country which accepts immigrants. Officially there has been long resistance to this as a public policy. One consequence was that very little was done about the political integration of foreigners. The fiction, artificially upheld by the state, that the foreigners in Germany would go away again was also an encouragement to those who saw foreigners as threatening their identity as Germans or as competing with them for jobs. Pictures of groups of "skinheads" beating up foreigners have been shown world-wide.
The opportunity of a change for the better came when the government coalition under Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, which has just been re-elected, changed the law on citizenship rights in 1999. This made it easier for foreigners to become citizens and offered them help in becoming integrated. Children born in Germany to parents who are permanent residents of Germany become German citizens, but as adults they have to choose between the German and their parents' nationality.
The new law on immigration in many ways still does not come up to the demands of the Protestant and Catholic churches presented in a 1998 "Joint Statement by the Churches on the Challenges from Immigration and Refugees", and of the Minister of the Interior's "Independent Commission on Immigration" in its statement in July 2001. The law is based on an overall concept, in accordance with EU laws, which allows immigration and integration oriented to the labour market, without sacrificing the constitutional right to asylum. Human rights groups have especially welcomed Germany's recognition on non-governmental persecution as a reason for granting asylum, and that this law makes it easier for women who suffer persecution because of their gender to gain asylum.