Germany has always been characterised by migration — and will continue to be so in the future. We live in a country of immigration, and with all that this entails: Opportunities, risks and conflicting goals. The majority of all immigrants do not come to Germany as refugees, even if this impression has been created among some people, particularly in retrospect of the years 2015 and 2016. Overall, a good half of the immigration in the past decade was accounted for by people from the European Union who came to Europe as part of the freedom of movement. In addition, there is a growing number of people who are moving to Germany from third countries (outside the EU) for gainful employment purposes, to study or as part of family migration. 

Immigration countries can design their policies differently. Germany is doing this as well. The Expert Commission would like to provide some guidance for this, among other things
•    with a description of the dynamics of the immigration society in chapter 2,
•    with references to possible conflicts of goals in chapter 3.9,
•    with reflections on asylum migration in chapter 4.9, and 
•    with an analysis of the question of what it actually means to be an immigration country in chapter 5.2.