State working group of municipal migrant representatives in North Rhine-Westphalia

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The State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state association of the municipal integration councils that exist in the municipalities and cities of North Rhine-Westphalia . It was enshrined in law in February 2012 with the passing of the Participation and Integration Act. Tayfun Keltek has been the founder and chairman of this umbrella organization for migrants in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1996 .

Organization and structure

The state integration council of North Rhine-Westphalia is the democratically legitimized representative body of the integration councils constituted in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia according to the applicable municipal code. With their state association, the integration councils give themselves a forum that takes up their interests and concerns and thereby supports their work on site. The self-decision-making powers of the municipalities and the integration councils remain unaffected. As the only democratically legitimized discussion partner of the state parliament and the state government that emerged from the primary elections of the migrants, the state integration council of North Rhine-Westphalia is the central body for representing the interests of migrants in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The state integration council of North Rhine-Westphalia forms its organs according to the delegate principle: The integration councils send representatives to the general assembly and the main committee of the state integration council of North Rhine-Westphalia and elect the board. In these committees, the delegates advise and develop the content-related positions. The State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia bundles the concerns and interests of its members at state level. The board of directors passes on the positions within the framework of hearings in the state parliament and in regular exchange with the parliamentary groups and the state government.

Principles and duties

The state integration council advocates the cultural, social, legal and political equality of the migrants living in the state who have their center of life in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The State Integration Council works with all institutions and organizations that feel equally bound by this principle. He is not committed to any party, but only to the common good. The State Integration Council endeavors to make an essential contribution to the peaceful coexistence of immigrant and native people in North Rhine-Westphalia in a society that is characterized by many cultures.

The State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia represents the interests of migrants in numerous institutions and facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia. The state parliament calls on him to submit statements on topics that affect areas of integration policy. The State Integration Council also initiates a number of issues itself. For example, it advocates rapid progress on issues such as local voting rights for third-country nationals, the fight against right-wing extremism and populism, the intercultural opening of the administration, and the promotion of natural multilingualism. Together with partners from the state and municipalities, he organizes events, conferences and seminars. The State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia also expresses itself in press releases and position papers, and makes its own studies and handouts available to its members and the specialist public. In addition, the State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia supports the content-related work of its members. Topics that are relevant for all municipalities are processed using sample applications and prepared for the integration councils so that they can take the political initiative in their municipalities.

history

The recruitment of so-called guest workers ended in the early 1970s. The phase of family reunification and permanent immigration began. Many women and children moved to Germany. A number of municipalities recognized that they were dependent on the cooperation of those affected in order to cope with the associated social challenge. However, the prevailing attitude was to provide support “for migrants”. Cities such as Duisburg and Cologne, but also smaller municipalities such as Troisdorf, founded councils for foreigners. As a rule, the members - Germans and non-Germans - were recruited from charities and trade unions. The aim was to advise the municipalities on the social design of the beginning integration process. The migrants active in the advisory councils soon understood their work as the political representation of all migrants in their municipality. They consequently called for direct elections to the advisory councils for foreigners. The first elections took place in the late 1970s. They underlined the new character of the advisory councils as the municipal body representing migrants in a city. Parallel to this development, the number of advisory councils for foreigners in North Rhine-Westphalia grew, because more and more migrants wanted to help shape integration policy themselves. Her topics were above all the improvement of the residence status, political participation and intercultural opening in the cities as well as the school situation of the children.

In the autumn of 1986, representatives from 17 elected advisory councils met at the invitation of the deputy chairman of the Cologne Foreigners Advisory Council, Tayfun Keltek. They agreed to found a political representation for migrants in North Rhine-Westphalia. But there was still no idea how it should be organized. The political self-image was also controversial. In July 1992 the “Working Group for Foreigners Advisory Councils for North Rhine-Westphalia (AGA NRW)” was founded in Essen. Tayfun Keltek was elected chairman. AGA NRW was founded at a time when a reform of the municipal code was already being discussed intensively in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the official establishment and the adoption of the AGA NRW statutes, there was now an umbrella organization that was able to articulate the interests of migrants for political participation at the state level. The AGA NRW saw itself as the umbrella organization of the foreigner advisory councils organized by it in North Rhine-Westphalia. Delegates of the member councils elected the state board and determined the course of the board. At the same time, the NRW Foreigners Council had been formed since 1986. This saw itself as a foreigners parliament, which should formulate the opinion of the migrants independently of political contexts in the country. Both organizations were involved in the debate about the amendment to the NRW municipal code. The intention of the state government to anchor the foreigners' advisory councils in the municipal code accompanied them with political statements that were taken into account. In October 1994 the new North Rhine-Westphalian municipal code came into force. From then on, Section 27 regulated the establishment of foreigners' advisory boards. They were compulsory from a minimum number of non-Germans. The municipal code stipulated that the advisory councils were to be elected by the migrants themselves.

Despite the positive development, the AGA NRW criticized the lack of participation of council members in the new foreigners advisory boards. The close intermeshing of the advisory councils with local politics, as desired by the AGA members, is not guaranteed. That - so predicted the AGA NRW - would condemn the advisory councils for foreigners not doing enough work. Under these new conditions, elections were held in 137 municipalities in the spring of 1995. In parallel to the deliberations on the new municipal code of North Rhine-Westphalia, representatives of the AGA NRW and the Foreigners Council signed the joint “Düsseldorf Declaration” in the state parliament on May 28, 1993. In it, the two associations stated that they consider uniform and joint representation of the municipal foreigners' advisory councils in North Rhine-Westphalia at the state level to be indispensable. The aim is to develop a joint draft statute for such a representation. At the beginning of 1996, after a meeting of the foreigners' advisory councils in Düsseldorf, a constitutional commission was set up. In the autumn of 1996 she presented a completed draft statute for the state working group of foreigners' advisory boards in North Rhine-Westphalia. On October 26, 1996, the constituent assembly of the regional working group of the NRW Foreigners Advisory Council (LAGA NRW) took place in Oberhausen. The delegates of the councils for foreigners from 90 cities and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia elected Tayfun Keltek as their chairman and a broad-based board of directors. And just two days later, the first press conference to introduce LAGA NRW took place in Düsseldorf.>

A few months later the LAGA NRW office was ceremoniously opened with the participation of the then North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Johannes Rau . The guest speaker was the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Ignatz Bubis .

Early on after the founding of LAGA NRW, the board dealt with the further development of political participation opportunities for migrants. This applied to the ongoing debate about the municipal right to vote for all migrants legally living in Germany and the structure of the advisory councils for foreigners. In the years after the founding of LAGA NRW, various modified models of migrant representation were developed. All pursued the goal of better dovetailing the elected migrant representatives with local politics and making them more effective. As a result of intense debates and a phase of experimentation between different models of migrant representation, Section 27 of the municipal code was amended in 2009 and 2013. At the preliminary end of the political negotiations, the Integration Council stands as a uniform body to which elected and appointed councilors belong. In 2014, the integration councils were elected at the same time as the municipal parliaments for the first time. Paragraph 8 in § 27 is understood as an essential achievement. There it says in sentence 1: “The council and integration council should coordinate the issues and tasks of integration in the community. The integration council can also deal with all community affairs. "

At the state level, the further development of the municipal bodies is reflected in the naming of the state association. As early as 2000, the delegates at the general assembly decided to change the name to the “State Working Group of Municipal Migrants Representations North Rhine-Westphalia” (LAGA NRW). After the elections for the local migrant representatives in February 2010, it was renamed again. The LAGA NRW became the "State Integration Council NRW". With the adoption of the North Rhine-Westphalia Participation and Integration Act in February 2012, the State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia was anchored in law as the institutional contact for the state parliament and state government. Section 10 “Representation at the state level” is of particular importance, in which it is stated that the state hears the state integration council when it comes to fulfilling its integration tasks.

See also

literature

  • Michael Plackert: The Foreigners Advisory Council - A contemporary form of political participation? In: Verwaltungsrundschau (VR). Journal for administration in practice and science . No. 53 , 2007, ISSN  0342-5592 , p. 80-85 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Web portal to the legal texts of North Rhine-Westphalia . Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  2. ↑ Website of the State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 8, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / landesintegrationsrat-nrw.de
  3. ↑ Image brochure of the State Integration Council of North Rhine-Westphalia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), Retrieved September 8, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / landesintegrationsrat-nrw.de  
  4. ↑ Festschrift: Years LAGA NRW  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), Retrieved September 8, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / landesintegrationsrat-nrw.de  
  5. ↑ Web portal to the legal texts of North Rhine-Westphalia . Retrieved September 8, 2015.