Once every year, around June to July timeframe.....the Chancellor of Germany holds a 'Integration Summit', where members of the political establishment, the pro-asylum agenda folks, and the various individuals with an interest in migration....meet.
It's been going on since the summer of 2006. You can go back to the first year, and note that right after they held that meeting....they went and had a Islamic Conference that went hand-in-hand with the previous week's summit.
A public relations campaign for the CDU and Chancellor Merkel? Well....yes.
The idea is to get across the news media and to anyone who views it....that the government cares about the situation....wants to accomplish integration with those seeking to be a part of Germany....and that the program is always evolving or improving.
Normally, the ministers who are part of the integration path....show up. So today, if you go through the ARD news listing, they noted that the Interior Minister (Seehofer, CSU) will NOT be there. There's speculation about this. Some suggest that he and Chancellor Merkel don't see eye to eye on the topic. Some say that recent events have given Seehofer more of a sour view on the Merkel vision ahead.
Do these integration summits ever amount to anything? You can Google up various news media pieces for each year, and they all had positive statements at the conclusion of the summit....feeling that things were focused and improving.
If you go and ask the general working-class German? There's debate....a fair amount of skeptical nature....and a feeling that it's just a PR-event with images and charming characters on the screen. It's like the G-7 summits and their lack of achievement but they continue because it's developed as a PR-event as well. Even if Merkel wasn't around, or the SPD were in charge....you'd see another Integration Summit.
Twelve years of Integration Summits, and the result? It would be curious to get ARD journalists to sit down and describe the achievements, or the public skeptical view of any real change over twelve years, but I doubt that will ever occur.
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