Germany - Definitions and legislative frameworks of Germany’s migration policy

Germany has undergone a laborious process to adjust its legislative and policy framework to its increasingly undeniable status as a country of immigration. This process was put under significant pressure by the migration crisis of 2015, when the country received 36 per cent of the 1.3 million asylum claims submitted throughout the European Union (EU). In fact, it is still open whether and to what extent the dramatic surge of humanitarian inflows has resulted in an actual change of Germany’s traditional approach towards immigrants and foreign residents. While the German migration system contains comparatively liberal policies, it still rests on a notion of community linked ‘by blood’, and is resistant to more open notions of citizenship and post-national belonging. This chapter sets out to outline the conceptual and legislative framework of Germany’s migration system and ascertain the scope and significance of the numerous changes in its migration and asylum law. The chapter does not aim to provide an exhaustive or legally authoritative account of such a complex and fluid subject, but rather to draw some normative implications from these frameworks and, in doing so, lay the groundwork for the further stages of the GLOBUS research.