Kühn memorandum

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The Kühn Memorandum is the name of the first report by the Office of the Foreigners Commissioner of the Federal Government, founded in 1978 . Its first director was Heinz Kühn , who published the memorandum in 1979. The full title of the Kühn memorandum reads the status and further development of the integration of foreign workers and their families in the Federal Republic of Germany . The memorandum is considered to be the first milestone in the third phase of integration policy, the "phase of integration concepts" 1979/1980. The central statement was that Germany is in fact a country of immigration .

background

The tenor of the memorandum was that the workers of foreign origin who were initially referred to as " guest workers " and who live in the Federal Republic of Germany must in future assume that the majority of those affected will remain here permanently and are therefore actually "immigrants". This contradicted the previous statement that “Germany is not a country of immigration”, but that only “ temporary integration ” would take place here.

The previous Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Heinz Kühn ( SPD ), had been appointed as the Federal Government's first commissioner for foreigners the year before. Kühn recognized that politics had a "social responsibility towards the people living in Germany today [...] and once the majority of whom were specifically" recruited "and their children". He thereby moved integration into the focus of political trade.

content

The memorandum proposes not only social and labor market integration but also political participation . The forms forming a central base.

  • The intensification of the integrative measures therefore begins with early childhood language support, since foreign parents often have difficulties imparting knowledge of the German language to their children in the family. In order to increase the attractiveness of pre-school facilities, it was recommended that foreign employees be employed.
  • In the area of ​​school education, emphasis is placed on the complete integration of foreign children into the German school system. The multinational composition of the classes means that teaching materials and curricula must be adapted. The inclusion of the mother tongue in regular lessons, for example as a first or second foreign language, is suggested.
  • Vocational training should be supplemented by preparatory and accompanying measures.
  • Another important aspect of the memorandum is the political integration through an option model that provided for children born and raised in Germany to be granted an unconditional legal right to naturalization, which they can decide on when they come of age. Furthermore, Kühn spoke out in favor of a municipal right to vote for immigrants with a longer stay.

The goals of these integration measures were the full legal and actual equality of foreigners in Germany as well as the improvement of the hitherto poor future prospects, especially for the approximately 1 million children and young people.

literature

  • Heinz Kühn: Status and further development of the integration of foreign workers and their families in the Federal Republic of Germany: Memorandum d. Representative d. Federal government. Federal Minister for Labor and Social order, Bonn 1979. migration-online.de (PDF; 3.4 MB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Mansel, Leo Monz: Wegweiser. In: Friday. March 9, 2004, ISSN  0945-2095 ( freitag.de ).