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As heated as the media debate on integration may be, the current “Integration Barometer” shows a stable climate in everyday life. Friendships, the labour market and schools are aspects of life that were adressed in the framework of the report. In these social contexts, the interaction between people with and without a migration background is perceived as good. “It must be said, and despite the noisy debates, that the majority of people interviewed for our study experienced integration in everyday life to be predominantly positive and that not much has changed here over the course of time”, reports Professor Claudia Diehl, a principal investigator in and co-speaker of the proposed Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” at the University of Konstanz.

The barometer, however, also identifies a marked divide between east and west as far as perceptions of integration in Germany are concerned. In the opinion of the Expert Council members, this difference can largely be explained by the varying frequency of people’s personal encounters and experiences in everyday life in Germany’s eastern and western federal states. “We are observing how the integration climate is clouding over especially for citizens in eastern Germany, who have little contact with refugees and members of minority groups”, explains Diehl. In regard to the refugee question, most of the interviewees were in favour of welcoming refugees but wanted the number to be limited and the process subjected to political control.

Surveys such as the current Integration Barometer are thematically linked  to the research being carried out in the Konstanz research area “The Politics of Inequality”, which links and explores reciprocal social and political causes and effects.

Key facts:

• Konstanz researchers Professor Claudia Diehl and Professor Daniel Thym along with other members of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration have published the second "Integration Barometer.”
• The study identifies a stable integration climate within  the social contexts of everyday life, but reveals a discrepancy between Germany’s eastern and western federal states.
• Expert Council member Professor Claudia Diehl is a sociologist and principal investigator in the research area “The Politics of Inequality” in Konstanz.
• “The Politics of Inequality” is one of three proposed Clusters of Excellence at the University of Konstanz that is competing in the German Excellence Strategy.