Migration, globalization, and the welfare state

During the last four decades, Germany has turned into an immigrant society. While its government still holds on to the principle of descent as the basis for inclusion, welfare state institutions serve as powerful instruments of social integration, as they provide forceful mechanisms of migrants' integration. However, globalization processes increasingly interfere with these national mechanisms of inclusion. The universalization of individualistic legal norms, legitimized by natural law, which will change migration flows as well as prospective social integration, is extremely important. In this process, the significance of the allocation of human capital will decrease compared to minority-specific social capital. Under these conditions the most promising option for a family policy which addresses itself to migrant families will be a policy which tries to intensify their normative orientation towards civil society.