Germany

The German returnees programme "Returning to New Opportunities"

The German government has launched a new initiative entitled “Returning to New Opportunities”, which aims at supporting people returning to their countries of origin to reintegrate by providing economic opportunities and the chance of a new start. An additional amount of 150 million euros was committed for the program. Currently, the following countries are part of it: Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Approach

Context

Morocco is no longer just a country of emigration – it is also a host country. An increasing number of people who are forced to flee their homes in other countries now seek asylum in Morocco. The number of people seeking asylum here has tripled in recent years. In April 2015 the figure stood at 2,937 – with the majority coming from Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire. This development poses major challenges for the country.

Migration and integration affect various different policy areas, such as education, employment and health. The project supports coordination between the relevant ministries at national level in order to ensure coherent implementation of the national strategy. In addition, exchange and communication formats are created between ministries at national level and local officials in the ten partner municipalities Béni Mellal, Casablanca, Fès, Marrakesh, Nador, Oujda, Rabat, Salé, Tanger and Tiznit to implement the strategy jointly and to draw up policy recommendations.

The "ProRecognition" project, launched by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) in autumn 2015 with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has established recognition consulting services at eight AHK locations.

Liechtenstein Languages is a non-profit language course project. It is designed to 1.) train language trainers and 2.) teach German or other languages to migrants and refugees who have arrived and settled in Europe, especially in German speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland).

The project, cofinanced by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, aims to optimise the transition between pre-integrative language-learning, information and advice courses abroad and initial language teaching, as well as further integration measures provided by the Federal Government in Germany.

The online portal "Returning from Germany" is a best practice example in the context of voluntary return policies which will be discussed at the Roundtable 2.2. The portal informs migrants in Germany about the option of a voluntary return and existing support possibilities, facilitates pre-departure counselling and transparency and links to post-arrival and reintegration assistance.

The Migration Profile Light has been developed in 2013 based on the feedback received from the Prague Process participating states aiming to strengthen the Prague Process Knowledge base with the useful tool consisting of state-owned migration profiles with standard and comparable data categories. In comparison to the Extended Migration Profile, which from its name indicates that the information should be of thorough and detailed nature, the Migration Profile Light is a handy tool with a limited number of pages clearly indicating the areas of interest.