On May 27, the inaugural meeting of the Expert Council on Immigration and Integration (Sachverstaendigenrat fuer Zuwanderung und Integration - Zuwanderungsrat) took place in Nuremberg. If the sign on the gate of the building of the former SS barracks is to be believed, writes Russkaya Germania, the creation of the new body took place at the Office for Migration and Integration (Nuernberger Bundesamt fuer die Anerkennung auslaendischer Fluechtlinge), which was previously known as the Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees.
The German Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, ordered the old sign to be replaced, but, as is known, he was in too much of a hurry. The commission he convened is also somewhat premature, since the law instituting it (Zuwanderungsgesetz) has been rejected by the Constitutional Court.
So, under the signboard of a nonexistent agency and on the basis of a nonexistent law, former President of the Bundestag Rita Suessmuth was installed by Minister Schily as the head of the ephemeral Council. The other members of the Council are: director of the Institute for Migration Research Professor Klaus
Bade, managing director of the federal Confederation of German Employers' Associations Christoph Kannegießer, member of the board of the Council of German Cities Gerd Landsberg, member of the board of the German Trade Union Confederation Heinz Putzhammer, and scientific director of the German Institute for Economic Research Gert Wagner. Three seats remain vacant for now and will be filled later.
Speaking at the meeting, Otto Schily emphasized that the main task of the Council is to provide the public with accurate information about the real state of affairs in the field of immigration. At the same time, the minister particularly noted that the issue of immigration is too complex to be assessed exclusively from a scientific point of view. Therefore, he said, the Council includes, along with specialists, representatives of the most important social groups of the country. In other words, statistics were not left without political censorship. It was felt that the socialist minister sorely lacked a pocket academician Lysenko, who would unite idealless science and 'red' ideology into one 'crushing fist'.
As is known, Dr. Rita Suessmuth, before this appointment, headed the group for the adoption of the new immigration law, which to this day cannot be put into effect. In May it was approved by the Bundestag and in the near future it must pass the next instance - the Bundesrat. It must, but it will not pass, since the states led by the political opposition do not want to accept the law in its current form. Probably, a special parliamentary committee will be created to prepare a compromise solution.
The law does not yet exist, but Otto Schily, like a mother who refuses to believe in the death of her infant, continues to coddle it. Therefore, for a healthy mind, even the very fact of the creation of the Council looks frightening enough.
One of the prominent representatives of the opposition, the Bavarian colleague of the minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria, Günther Beckstein, sharply criticized the creation of the Council. He believes that this action of Schily demonstratively ignores the decision of the Constitutional Court, which suspended the new immigration law. Beckstein stated that with this step the government is trying to present the country's public with a fait accompli.