Migration

Questions of migration and integration are increasingly gaining momentum. For a long time already, ISS German Branch has put the focus on a special group of children in need of protection: unaccompanied minor refugees.

Moreover, we offer help in the field of family reunification and the return of migrants to their home countries.

More and more often, ISS German Branch is asked for advice by youth welfare offices as well as by foreigners authorities with regard to cases of collision between child protection regulations and residence law, and vice versa. A classical case of this is, e.g. if a whole family is given an order of departure from Germany although the children are in care.

Youth welfare offices complain that the foreigners authorities do not understand their concerns. On the other hand, foreigners authorities complain that the youth welfare offices do not provide them with what they need in order to be able e.g. to grant a residence permit on account of the best interests of the child. Both sides have only little knowledge about the work of the other one.

This led to the idea of offering a meeting where representatives of foreigners authorities and youth welfare authorities come together. In this way, each of them has the opportunity to learn more about the working basis of their “cooperation partner by necessity”. Therefore, since 2007, ISS German Branch has hosted specialist meetings on “migration and child and youth welfare” to highlight the intersections between child welfare provisions and residence law. The target group of the meetings are staff members of youth welfare authorities and foreigners authorities.

In 2009, based on the previous meetings, a specialist conference was hosted for the first time, aimed at developing practical possibilities of cooperation between youth welfare offices and foreigners authorities. A documentation of the conference is available.

To download the documentation, click on the link below:

Documentation: Aliens Law and Child and Youth Services

 Ulrike Schwarz, 28.04.2010