From Leitkultur to Multiculturalism: What Canada and Germany Can Learn from Each Other About Immigration, Integration, and Inclusion

In October 2021, Governor General Mary May Simon set out on her first international trip in that position. The decision to go to Germany signals the importance of the Canada-Germany relationship. In the Governor General’s own words, “Canadians and Germans share so much: core values, personal ties and common ground.”

Both Canada and Germany wrapped up federal elections in the fall. While not much has changed in Canada – we still have a Liberal minority government – Germany will be governed by a three-way coalition for the first time since the 1950s.

The political discourse in the two countries on immigration during the recent elections is illustrative of our different national contexts. In Germany, issues of immigration, integration, diversity, and citizenship are hotly debated. For example, the far-right Alternative for Germany’s election manifesto called for asylum seekers to be rejected directly at the border, for Germany to leave the migration and refugee pacts of the United Nations, and for head scarves to be banned from the public service and in public schools.

Although a question during the English-language leaders debate about Quebec’s secularism laws caused controversy, these issues generally do not get much air-time in Canadian political discourse. Notwithstanding the outrage over the hate-motivated killing in London, Ontario of an innocent Muslim family, Islamophobia never really featured on the platforms of any federal party.

However, it is worth noting that the People’s Party of Canada, the only party that wants to substantially lower the number of immigrants and refugees Canada accepts each year, more than tripled its 2019 vote share. Nevertheless, even though the party picked up 5% of the vote in September’s election, they failed to secure a seat in Parliament.

Despite these detractors, both of our countries have developed relatively open processes for immigration and displayed a willingness to welcome refugees. Since 2015, over 73,000 Syrian refugees have settled in Canada, while over 700,000 Syrian refugees are estimated to be living in in Germany.

As the pressure to provide protection and refuge to vulnerable Afghans increases, Canada and Germany have made a commitment to accept up to 40,000 Afghans each. No doubt this is not the final number given the instability in Afghanistan and the West’s moral responsibility to assist endangered interpreters, journalists, activists, and others. But there have been important lessons learned in both countries from their experiences with Syrian refugees that can be brought to bear in this one.

One important made-in-Canada initiative which has found legs in Germany is the unique public-private partnership in the sponsorship of refugees. Canada’s private sponsorship program is a unique and successful experiment in nation building. It began in the late 1970s as a response to the massive numbers of people who were displaced by the aftermath of war in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Since that time, more than 327,000 refugees have arrived through this program, and more than two million Canadians have sponsored refugees.

In 2019, Germany launched a community refugee sponsorship program known as Neustart im Team. The pilot includes 400 sponsored refugees, with sponsors responsible for providing integration support for one year and housing for two. The goal is not only to offer additional resettlement opportunities for vulnerable refugees, but also to provide them with financial and social support after their arrival in Germany. These types of private and community sponsorship models serve as an excellent complement to state resettlement programs. To ensure their continued success, our countries should share information and best practises.

Further, Canada has launched a new stream to expedite the arrival of those refugees who possess the right education and experience to meet labour market shortages. The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot will settle up to 500 skilled refugees and their families in Canada, not through the refugee program with its cap on numbers, but through the much larger economic pathway. This effort may well be an innovation that Germany could embrace, both for those refugees who arrive at its borders and those who are located in camps elsewhere.

In terms of our immigration strategies, both countries want immigrants of a certain type – the highly skilled, with high language capabilities, easily able to integrate into the labour market. But are these the immigrants our countries actually need? The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that our immigration systems focus too much on high skills, rather than on essential skills.

Canada is experiencing ongoing labour shortages in several industries. There are tens of thousands of job vacancies in hospitality and food services, health care, retail, manufacturing, and construction. Canada needs registered nurses, meat packers, masons, electricians, carpenters, labourers, retail salespersons, shelf stockers, and truck drivers.

In Germany, demographic shifts mean that a generation of German workers are nearing the final stages of their working life. Germany needs around 400,000 skilled workers per year to compensate for this loss. Many sectors are already experiencing a shortage of skilled candidates for vacant positions, in particular IT, the medical sector, and craft trades. The labour market of today dictates that both countries need a serious rethink on immigration selection.

We rely on having a steady supply of immigrants to replace retiring workers, spur economic growth, and contribute to social services. Increases in immigration with better results from integration would therefore seem to be a reasonable position to take in both countries. However, any further
increases in immigration will need to be supported by the voting public. Key to this will be the continued demonstration of success in integration.

On this front, Canada has lot to learn from Germany. For example, Germany has found ways to move forward on credential recognition – a problem that continues to plague us here in Canada. In Germany, the Skilled Immigration Act was enacted in March 2020 to make immigration easier for qualified skilled workers, as well as to make the credential recognition process quicker. At the same time, the Central Service Agency for Professional Recognition was established to support applicants abroad in the recognition procedure. It also helps that licenses for certain key occupations, such as medicine, allow professionals to practice across the country, unlike in Canada, where professional licenses are valid only in the province or territory where they are issued. Further, Germany has a culture and history of labour and businesses working together to determine and address labour shortages in a far more proactive manner than in Canada.

The Ontario government recently proposed legislation to remove barriers for immigrants looking to work in licensed professions that match their areas of expertise. According to the government, the proposed changes would largely eliminate Canadian work experience requirements, reduce duplication in official language proficiency testing, and ensure the licensing process is completed in a timely manner. The legislation would apply to licensing bodies governing engineers, architects, teachers, accountants, and social workers, among others, as well as internationally trained workers in 23 trades.

While this legislation is good news for Ontario, Canada as a whole continues to struggle with credential recognition. Although the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications was created in 2009 to address this problem, the framework is non-binding and consists only of suggested good practice standards. Given the ongoing seriousness of this particularly wicked problem, our two countries should work alongside each other to identify solutions.

While Canada may struggle with credential recognition, we do a good job of integrating immigrant children in school – something Germany struggles with. The German school system has three tracks: academic (Gymnasium), vocational (Hauptschule and Realschule), and mixed. Recent data shows that only a third of immigrant students attend Gymnasium schools, compared to more than half of their non-migrant peers.

Canadian data is more difficult to analyze since education falls under provincial jurisdiction. In Ontario secondary schools, Grade 9 students choose between three levels of study: Academic, Applied, and Essentials. According to a 2010 study of the Toronto District School Board, which is Canada’s largest school board, 75% of Grade 9 students entered the Academic stream, 20% the Applied stream, and 5% the Essentials stream. Second generation immigrant students were very likely to enter the Academic stream, at a rate of 80%.

The academic discrepancy between Canada and Germany can also be observed in the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA assessments are conducted every three years in over 80 countries to collect comparative data on 15- year-olds’ performance in reading, mathematics, and science. The 2018 PISA test scores show no statistically significant difference in reading performance between immigrant and non-immigrant students in Canada while, in Germany, non-immigrant students received better scores.

Perhaps because of their academic inclination, relatively few immigrant youths in Canada choose to pursue the trades in post-secondary. According to the 2015 National Apprenticeship Survey, the majority of apprentices were Canadian-born. Immigrants accounted for only 9% of apprentices, which is less than half of their share of the population of Canada.

The same cannot be said in Germany. In the wake of a wave of refugees applying for asylum in 2015 and 2016, the German government has relied on its vocational school system to integrate refugees into the country’s workforce. Because many of the refugees were youths, the government launched a three-stage programme to prepare young refugees for vocational education. Germany’s approach appears to have been successful, since the number of refugees who applied for vocational training through German public employment agencies almost quadrupled between 2015 and 2018. In 2020, foreigners made up approximately 11% of apprentices in Germany, which is close to their 13% share of the population.

As two countries that welcome large numbers of immigrants and refugees every year, it’s interesting to note the differences in how our countries manage immigration through their machineries of government.

In Germany, immigration is the purview of the Office for Migration and Refugees which is a department within a Ministry, whereas in Canada, we have a Minister, a department, and a large integration budget along with many affiliated agencies. If Germany wants to promote immigration as one way to ensure its future prosperity, perhaps it’s worth considering the merits of the Canadian structure.

There also remain important questions of identity, citizenship, and culture in both countries. In Germany, the movement for formally establishing and recognizing a Leitkultur (guiding culture) have been rebuffed to date, but there is no doubt that Germany’s identity is being tested by its growing diversity. Germany’s more restrictive citizenship policies also prolong the goal of integration.

Canada’s multicultural policy, combined with a Citizenship Act which enables immigrants to apply for citizenship after completing three years of residence, has accelerated integration. Yet, Canada too has its unique set of challenges. The results of a national survey on race relations revealed that public awareness of racism has increased over the past two years. This has led to discussions on whether our precious model of multiculturalism is under question as we try to come to terms with our own racist past against Indigenous and Black people. Add to this the rising expressions of Islamophobia in Canada, as well as the rise of anti-Asian racism, and it becomes clear that there is a gap in what Canada aspires to be and what it is. In addition, Canada faces a significant challenge of bringing new Canadians on the path to reconciliation and justice, even though they may have had no part in this history.

Finally, both countries will need to prove to the public that our systems and processes of selection and border control are robust. Our countries will need to continuously demonstrate success in integration to shore up the public’s support for this particular aspect of nation building.

As we continue to navigate the pandemic and its impacts on migration, communication between our countries is essential. Germany and Canada will continue to face many of the same future challenges. Therefore, collaboration collaboration and the sharing of best practises would be to our joint benefit. Whether this is through formal alliances or informal mechanisms is perhaps not as important as the absolute necessity to keep an open flow of information, exchanges, research, ideas and policy proposals.

Read the policy paper in Behind the Headlines