Frankfurt New integration research institute

The institute will have at first three fellows and has an annual budget of 1.5 million euros. The chair of the board of trustees will be the Federal Commissioner for Integration, Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer.

Multidisciplinary and European

According to Böhmer, the German job market will have to increasingly tap into the reserve capacity in the country itself and to attract skilled workers from abroad. The education system has to be involved from an early stage with the integration of these migrant workers and their offspring. Böhmer went on to say that the new institute shall in future "play an important role given its multidisciplinary, primarily empirical and European centred research".

Practical

The novel features of the institute are not just to be found in its multidisciplinary and European approach but also in the fact that the German Football association and Federal Employment Agency are to provide it with up-to-date information. This makes possible a completely new research approach and practical expertise. The rector of the Goethe University Prof. Dr. Werner Müller-Esterl believed that the institute could play an important part in recognising the potential of immigrants and to get them involved in society "to achieve (this goal) the academic work from various faculties will be brought together in the new institute."

The institute's research areas

The European character of the institute is to be mirrored in the appointment of its fellowships and the structure of the new body. The Sociology, Education, Economics and Sport faculties are to work close together. Collectively, practical questions on migration and integration will be looked into, covering early learning and schooling, the job market and the social environment.

Sport and integration

A specialism is to be found in the fourth priority of the institute, namely football and immigration. The integrative achievement achieved by sport clubs will be for the first time scientifically tracked and systematically evaluated. The president of the German Football Association (DFB), Theo Zwanziger said, "Sport is a splendid integration-supportive measure. Every week 50,000 under 19s football matches take place, the 6.7 million members of the football clubs experience integration. We, therefore, gladly support the empirical research in this field and hope to receive impulse for our own work."

Members of the board of trustees

Alongside Prof. Dr. Maria Böhme the board of trustees will consist of Dr. Michael Endres, chairman of the Hertie Foundation, which will finance one of the institute's professors, Prof. Dr. Werner Müller-Esterl, the rector of the Goethe-University, Frankfurt, which will cover the bulk of the funding, Dr. h. c. Frank-J. Weise, Chair of the board of the Federal Employment Agency and Dr. Theo Zwanziger, DFB, president, the latter body taking over the part-financing of one of the fellowships.