The impact of integration policies on actual integration of migrants.

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Germany on the other hand has a different perspective, valuing much less unity of cultural norms, practices and values and much more the factual integration, namely the effectiveness of the living-together of people, the integration through education and school. Differences between groups, between some migrants’ groups and German are acknowledged and not attempted to be thought, not perceived as failed integration, thus not creating issues or division among the population regarding who is a “better citizen” because he adheres to some German principles and gives up those of his society of origin. Integration is not a synonymous of assimilation in Germany, whereas it tends to be in France because of different philosophies and perceptions of the concept of integration itself.

II- Empirical comparison of the policies’ effects on integration

Having discussed the policies themselves and the philosophy they are anchored in we are now going to empirically compare their results, their effects on actual integration.

A. Empirical methods in order to analyze the impact of integration policies

As previously mentioned, there is an index of integration, which is a relevant empirical tool in order to analyze the impact of integration policies on actual integration. This index is the Migration Integration Policy Index and it is meant to measure the impact of policies led by developed countries mostly (EU member states, USA, Canada, Australia…) on integration of migrants. Thanks to 167 indicators such as education, labor market mobility, family reunion, health, political participation, anti-discrimination (…), it is a multidimensional tool to compare “what governments are doing to promote the integration of migrants in all the countries analyzed”. Countries are given point according to their performance in the upper-mentioned fields, which gives a definite ranking out of 100 points where Germany ranks better than France.

That is very interesting that an index has been created but one can also measure the level of integration ourselves, by looking at revealing indicators. Language is a tool to look at when trying to see how integrated migrants can be: the language level can be tested thus giving us an idea of the level of integration. However, more interesting would be to look at the pursuit of studies or the level of employment for people who had to learn the language of the host society because speaking a language is one thing but it is all the more important to efficiently use that knowledge to study or work, which are important variables of integration in our societies.

The well-being would also be an important variable, which can also be known through surveys. Indeed, feeling integrated or rejected is something that weighs a lot into the feeling of well being of a given person, especially of one who has recently had to change her habits in a new society.

Finally, an inter-generation study can also be relevant in order to measure the impact of policies in the long run: an integration policy might not have a sudden effect on the migrant situation but it may encourage further integration for the children and therefore impact the actual integration only one generation after.

B. Comparison of the effects themselves

If we look at the effects themselves we can draw a few observations. First, the index clearly shows that Germany achieves integration better than France does. Their index is higher which means that Germany is performing better on integration policies in various domains. The biggest strength of Germany is its integration policy on the labor market (86 out of 100 on Labour Market Mobility), which is due to the recognition of migrants’ working abilities through the 2012 recognition act, thus enabling migrants to integrate better on the labor market since their abilities are acknowledged. France on the other hand is only scoring 54, which proves difficulties of integration through work in the country.

I do not have the space here to detail all indicators but it appears that Germany takes over France on all of them except anti-discrimination. This shows that Germany is a country that tends to more efficiently tackle the issues of integration and we can wonder if this efficiency is linked to their philosophy of integration. That is what we are going to discuss now in our ultimate part.

III- Discussion: efficiency of the policies in order to reach integration

As far as we’ve seen, Germany is more efficient than France in talking the issue of migrant’s integration. We have proved so in our second part. In our first part, we have also noticed that they had two different approaches to integration policies, one being more assimilationist and the others betting on the integration in different fields of social life like work, education by implementing special policies but not by giving general guidelines of what a migrant should be like or how he should act like in order to integrate. To me, it would seem that the philosophy of integration is clearly impact the effective integration of migrants and that France’s lack of efficiency can therefore be explained by the stance of their integration policies. Indeed, it would appear that this wish for unity at all cost, this search of common values that forces the culture of origin to withdraw is getting in the way of the peacefulness of the process, making it a painful thing and therefore creating frustration, anger and fostering the impression that integration is actually imprisonment, constraint. That is my impression but that is also the one of young people interviewed in French suburbs, second-generation migrants or even the discourse carried by popular singers who have that same kind of public. This feeling ends up standing in the way of integration through work, through education because these people are (1) wrongly perceived by employers because difference is showed as a flaw and (2) not integrated in school because they are feeling we reproach them to be who they are. I have recently met a former great counselor of President François Hollande who told my class and me about his path, his professional life. He also mentioned his background and the fact that he came from a migrant’s family and had always told himself “I have to be Frencher than all the French” in order to integrate and make his way through school etc...That’s his choice and he is free to tell himself whatsoever he likes but I think that a migrant should not have to tell himself that in order to integrate. These should not be the keys words to integration and yet they more and more seem to be.

Conclusion:

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