People planning to come to Germany cannot learn German early enough. The German government aims to make people more aware of this before they ever leave their own countries. Parallel to this, German teachers or digital learning services must be available in these countries. In a nutshell: needs-driven education services are required, to ensure that people can more easily find their feet in Germany, and make themselves understood.  

Putting in place the foundations for integration

A declaration that the Cabinet has now adopted touches on these and other strategies. The National Action Plan on Integration brings together a wide spectrum of integration approaches and weaves them into a nationwide strategy – involving more than 300 actors from the realms of government and civil society. Migration has for these purposes been broken down into five phases: the pre-immigration phase – making for an easier start – integration – growing together – strengthening cohesion.

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German courses in the countries of origins of migrants is part of phase 1, the pre-immigration phase, as is what is termed "early integration", which aims to communicate a realistic image of life in Germany. Information and education are to provide a foundation for further integration. Another goal of the German government is to attract skilled workers from abroad. Germany is to be positioned as an attractive country for immigrants, among global competitors.

The next step will be to combine the declaration of the German government with inputs from the individual federal states, leading local authority associations and the reports of five thematic forums to produce one overall report.