Slowly turning into a ‘Country of Immigration’? On the interaction between migration and integration policies in Germany

For decades, Germany considered itself a ‘nonimmigration country’, despite a large influx of migrants almost throughout the years following World War II. Most immigrants to Germany were expected to stay only temporarily; therefore, the necessity of a structured integration policy was largely neglected. An exception was made for ethnic German immigrants and asylum-seekers, along with EU citizens, for whom immigration rules were relatively liberal from early on. Since the early 2000s, Germany’s immigration and integration policy has changed notably, not least due to the demographic change. The latter has increased the shortage of workers and led to a liberalisation of Germany’s immigration policy regime for skilled workers. The latest inflow of refugees in 2015 and 2016 reaffirmed the need for a more structured and coherent integration policy, leading the government to pass several new laws regulating and improving immigrants’ integration into the German labour market and society.