On October 14th 2008, the European Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung held a conference titled “Christian values as the basis of a sustainable integration policy for young immigrants in Europe”. Experts were invited from all over Europe. The conference was linked with the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and coincided with the European Council’s adoption of the Pact on Immigration in the same week. The goal of the conference was to exchange views on integration policy in different countries and to help stimulate the dialogue between cultures and religions.

Archbishop Agostino MARCHETTO, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, focussed his speech on the particular role played by the church and religion in the integration of young immigrants. The speeches given by Mr. Armin LASCHET, North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister for Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration, and Mr. Manfred WEBER, Member of the European Parliament for the German CSU (Christian Social Union) and member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, dealt with integration policy on a national and European level. Following these speeches, the experts invited from different European countries spoke on education and language skills, the integration of immigrants in the labour market, measures to stimulate dialogue between cultures, and also about common ethnic values and the difficulties experienced in relations with Islam.

Introduction

Mr. Anton PFEIFER, deputy chairman of the Konrad-Adenaur-Stiftung and former Minister of State, gave a short introduction on the issue: With increasing mobility, globalization and the the EU enlargement to the East, present-day Europe was characterized by an unprecedented clash of cultures and religions. Although giving rise to fears and anxiety, cultural diversity needed to be seen as an asset. Politicians had to deal with these fears by encouraging dialogue, especially between young people.

The difficulties young immigrants have in integrating

Young people between 15 and 25 years old represented one third of all migrants worldwide, Archbishop MARCHETTO explained at the beginning of his speech. Young immigrants were faced with far more difficulties than their peers: on the one hand, they had to do well at school and start a career; on the other hand, as members of a minority group, they were exposed to stigmatization and discrimination. It was difficult for immigrants, especially second or third generation ones, to shape their identity - they still felt connected to their country of origin and wanted to preserve their cultural identity, but at the same time they wanted to become part of their new environment, their new home country. Not being assimilated, they continued to live in the twilight zone of “dual identity”.

The contribution of the church and religion to integration

As migration was also a “spiritual experience” and religion played an important role in the search for identity and values, the church took on responsibility in this issue by providing help and advice to young people, not only in religious questions, but in social and political questions too. These questions covered a whole range of subjects: school, job training, poverty, environmental protection, leisure, sexuality, drugs and criminal activity. MARCHETTO emphasized that integration policy needed values that were not exclusively based on Christian religion but on humanistic values in general and quoted in this context French theologian Rémi Brague. According to Mr. MARCHETTO, the church accepted that politicians were also in a position to communicate these values.

Integration policy on a national and European level

However all speakers at the conference, including Armin LASCHET, confirmed that politicians had been too late in identifying integration as a political issue. The first so-called “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers) had arrived in Germany back in the 1960’s, as a result of bilateral agreements with Italy and Turkey. They were followed by their families and remained in Germany, rendering the term “guest” incorrect. Integration policy only appeared on the political agenda after Chancellor Angela Merkel convoked the Integration Summit in 2006. Referring to immigration expert Klaus J. Bade, LASCHET pointed out that Germany now had to make up for its past lack of integration policy (“nachholende Integration”). Dutch deputy Mirjam STERK (the Dutch CDA’s spokeswoman on Nationality Legislation) and Jean-Philippe MOINET (French Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Cooperative Development) both agreed that, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo VAN GOGH, politicians had woken up to the fact that integration policy had to be put on the political agenda and that the previous “laissez-faire” attitude had been wrong,.

Manfred WEBER spoke of the necessary immigration legislation. He gave an overview of the Pact on Immigration recently adopted by Member States. The Pact’s chief objectives were to shape a common asylum policy, to tighten controls on illegal immigration and to make it easier for non-EU professionals to come to Europe with the help of a “Blue Card”. Mr. WEBER was pleased that EU Member States would still be able to set the number of immigrants entering their national labour markets. Referring to illegal immigration he said that it had to be clear that not everyone who came to Europe could stay. Illegal immigrants had either to be given a legal status or to be sent back to their home countries to avoid having to live as “modern slaves”. Mr. WEBER himself had worked on drawing up the directive on the return of illegal immigrants in the European Parliament. He emphasized that the principle of subsidiarity had also to be applied to integration policy.

The key role of education in successful integration

There was general consensus that education and, in particular, language skills were the key to successful integration. In this context Armin LASCHET stated that the North-Rhine Westphalia government had introduced obligatory language tests for all 4-year-olds. First results showed that 22% of them had language skills needing to be fostered. Javier FERNANDÉZ-LASQUETTY (Regional Minister for Immigration and Cooperation of the autonomous region of Madrid) reported that “clases de recepción” had been set up in Spain to ensure that all children mastered Spanish before starting school. Ms STERK similarly reported that the Dutch government intended to offer language courses for all children from the age of two by 2011. But young immigrants still had much more difficulties at school than their peers. Sirvan EKICI, the ÖVP’s (Austrian People’s Party) Spokeswoman on Integration and a member of the Parliament of Vienna, deplored the fact that 40% of “Sonderschule” (special school) pupils had an immigration background. These pupils left school with such low qualifications that they were only able to find work at supermarkets; this is why EKICI referred to them as the “Billa Generation” (named after an Austrian supermarket chain).

To support labour market integration, Sweden offered financial incentives to employers hiring immigrants, explained Lars GUSTAFSSON, Swedish deputy and member of the Committee on Social Insurance and Immigration. Local authorities received state subsidies for helping immigrants to settle. Jean-Philippe MOINET defined the goals of the French programme “Hope for the Suburbs” prepared by Christine Boutin, French Housing and Urban Affairs ministers and Fadela Amara, her Secretary of State, whereby a “social mix” (“mixité sociale”) with people from different cultures was to be encouraged and ghettoisation avoided at all costs.

Seeing diversity as an asset

The fact that countries like Germany had become immigration countries needed to be reflected in the diversity of people working for the police, in politics or as TV newscasters, said Armin LASCHET. Diversity needed to be positively promoted, as in the “Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration” in Paris, said Mr. MOINET.

Stimulating the dialogue and overcoming fears

Mr. FERNANDÉZ-LASQUETTY gave a concrete example of a successful contribution to the dialogue between immigrants and the native population in Spain – the so-called “Centros de Integración y Participación” specially designed for young people. The fear of immigration waves, ghettos in the towns and increased competition on the labour market still prevailed in European public opinion and could only be overcome by encouraging dialogue, Archbishop MARCHETTO said.

Integration based on values

Such dialogue needed a common set of values, such as the “Charter of Values, Citizenship and Immigration” proposed by the former Italian Minister of the Interior, Giuliano Amato. This charter was presented by Erika RUBBO who works for the “Interreligious Studies Academy”. These values included the principle of equality and the right to attend school. Concerning the relation to Islam, the charter called for equal opportunities for men and women, condemned polygamy and women having to wear face-covering veils. Immigrants needed to respect certain core values of their host country, such as the separation of church and state and the accompanying freedom of religion, said Mr. MOINET. But one should not forget that Europe owed freedom of religion, one of its fundamental values, to Christianity, stated Manfred WEBER. Although the Christian church played an important role in the dialogue between Christians and Jews and between Christians and Muslims, Christian values were now less important than, for example, in the 1950’s, said Christopher BEAZLEY, UK MEP and member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Accepting Islam as a part of public life

There were still difficulties in the relations between Christians and Muslims, reported Mr. LASCHET. This could be witnessed in Cologne, where the construction of a mosque had drawn major protests from residents. He proposed an official agreement between the State and the Muslim community, similar to the concordats with the Church. Ms. STERK regretted that many Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands considered themselves as Muslims but not as Dutch people with, for example, Turkish roots. But the answers given by Dutch deputy Geert Wilders, known for his criticism of Islam, to the integration problems of Muslims were too simplistic. Ms. STERK said that she was in favour of increasing cooperation between the State and the Muslim community; this was why high-school and university courses on Islam had been set up in the Netherlands. In Austria, where Islam has been legally recognized since 1912, a university chair for imams had been created and these now preached in German, reported Ms. EKICI. Islam should not only be practised in backyard mosques but should come out into the open and become part of political life. In Austria, politicians regularly visited Ramadan sermons. Forced marriages or “honour killings” should be punished as - using the words of Austria’s Minister of the Interior, Maria Fekter - “culture-based offences” (“Kulturdelikte”) in order not to defame Islam.