Refugee Integration Policy and Public Administration in Cologne

Abstract

The report focuses on local refugee integration policy and its implementation by the public administration in Cologne. It starts by outlining the general administrative and social structures and traditions in Germany´s fourth most populous city and then turns to refugee integration in detail. The city understands integration as a long-term political goal cutting across various administrative departments. Therefore, several public bodies are involved in making and implementing integration policy. Coordinating entities have been introduced recently to facilitate the integration of refugees. Furthermore, the report highlights the specific integration policies of the city in the four research areas of the project: employment, education, vulnerable groups and social assistance. In these fields, Cologne implements federal and state programs. Additionally, the city deploys an integration budget in order to set up and subsidize local projects targeting the special needs of migrants and refugees. In most of these programmes, the municipality does not provide the services for refugees itself, but relies on the cooperation with non-profit organizations. They range from longstanding welfare associations to newly formed initiatives and migrant organizations. The report presents the involvement of these non-profit organizations in the policy fields under study.