European Task Force on Irregular Migrations – Country report: Germany

Summary:

From a European comparative perspective, Germany represents the case of a highly restrictive migration control regime. Between 400,000 and 600,000 migrants live in the country without legal resident status. Their access to social rights such as health care and education is severely restricted, and individual or collective regularization channels do not exist.

Against this background, this report analyses the role of the local level in addressing the issue of irregular migration in Germany. Within the context of a restrictive national migration control regime, which role does the local level play in addressing the situation of irregular migrants? What is the scope of (alternative) policy approaches that can be used by the local level? Which factors encourage specific and possibly “alternative” approaches on the local level? And what is the role of the local level in policies on irregular migration in the context of the specific institutional structure of the German political system, especially the federal state structure? Focusing on the case of Berlin, this report addresses these questions through an analysis of secondary literature, a document analysis of laws and administrative regulations and through expert interviews with key actors in the field of irregular migration in the city of Berlin. The results show that, while in the German context the degree of politicization of the issue of irregular migration is low, the situation of irregular migrants is addressed in a pragmatic and rather depoliticized way on the local level. The city of Berlin and several other German cities play an important role as a space where civil society organizations and local political actors interact in negotiating and improving irregular migrants‟ access to social rights, sometimes counteracting the provisions of the national migration control regime.

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