Independent Policy Advice

The Expert Council on Integration and Migration is an independent body providing research-based policy advice. Its reports aim to assist those bodies responsible for integration and migration policy, as well as the general public, in their opinion-forming processes. Germany is a country of immigration. Integration and migration are thus key issues of the future which will continue to pose significant challenges to politics and society in the coming years. That is why the Federal Government took the decision on 2 December 2020 to establish the Expert Council on Integration and Migration. It will continue the work of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration (SVR), founded in 2008 as a consortium of private foundations.

Under the charter establishing the Expert Council on Integration and Migration, it is tasked with

• providing research-based information about trends, issues and evidence-based solutions in the fields of integration and migration, monitoring these trends and providing a neutral and methodologically sound assessment of them,
• providing actionable policy advice and taking a clear stance on current issues so as to be able to supply factual arguments for the public and political debate, objectivising information provided to the public and giving new impetus to the relevant debates

for the benefit of politics at federal, federal state and local authority level, as well as civil society.

The Expert Council on Integration and Migration is mandated with providing independent advice. Its assessments and evaluations are bound only by scientific criteria. It publishes all its statements, recommendations and reports.

Under the charter establishing the Expert Council, it has a threefold mission:

• The Expert Council draws up an Annual Report, which is forwarded to the Federal Government in the second quarter of each year and then published. The Annual Report aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of integration and migration policy.
• The Expert Council also prepares, on its own initiative, position papers on individual issues or gives its opinion when requested to do so.
• Every two years the Expert Council publishes an empirically-based analysis of the integration climate in Germany, which may cover the country as a whole, the individual federal states and municipalities (Integration Barometer). Both people with and without a migration background are included in this analysis, which looks at a variety of groups so that account can be taken of the opinions and personal assessments of various population groups.

Organisation

The interdisciplinary Expert Council comprises a total of nine Researchers, who are each required to have specialist knowledge of and experience in their own disciplines within the fields of integration and migration as well as international research standing. The Council Members are appointed for a three-year term by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community with the agreement of the involved federal ministries and the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration following consultations with the Chair of the Expert Council. Reappointment (generally only once) is possible. Appointments are based on a vote by an independent selection committee. The Expert Council on Integration and Migration elects a Chairperson and a Deputy Chairperson from among its Members for three years.

The Berlin Office supports the work of the Expert Council on Integration and Migration. The Research Unit, with its scientific staff, also forms part of the Berlin Office.

The Federal Government finances the Expert Council on Integration and Migration and its Berlin Office through funding allocated in the federal budget.