Migration, globalization, and the welfare state

During the last four decades, Germany has turned into an immigrant society. While its government still holds on to the principle of descent as the bas is for inclusion, welfare state institutions serve as powerful instruments of social integration, as they provide forceful mechanisms of migrants' int egration. However, globalization processes increasingly interfere with thes e national mechanisms of inclusion. The universalization of individualistic legal norms, legitimized by natural law, which will change migration flows as well as prospective social integration, is extremely important. In this process, the significance of the allocation of human capital will decrease compared to minority-specific social capital. Under these conditions the m ost promising option for a family policy which addresses itself to migrant families will be a policy which tries to intensify their normative orientat ion towards civil society.