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In May 2003, the German SPD-Green government re-introduced its migration bill unchanged. The opposition CDU-CSU proposed 128 amendments, the Parliament nonetheless approved it, but the bill remains blocked in the upper house, where the opposition has a majority. The new law establishes a Migration Council chaired by Rita Suessmuth, who chaired the 2001 Commission whose report led to the government's bill.

The Council has begun its work on monitoring immigration and integration, and spokesman Roland Dorfner said Germany wants "to have control over immigration and you haven't any control when you only have asylum-seekers who come for humanitarian reasons... We have many problems integrating foreigners in Germany. But the new immigration laws will make it a duty for the immigrants to learn the German language."

Meanwhile, some states have proposed implementing parts of the pending migration bill. Lower Saxony, for instance, wants to increase the number of hours that foreigners are required to take German language and culture classes from 600 to 1,000 hours, with foreigners paying the E1,600 fee. The welfare payments of non-participants would be reduced by 25 percent.

Some 154,500 foreigners became naturalized Germans in 2002, down from 178,100 in 2001, bringing to 520,000 the number of foreigners naturalized since a new law eased naturalization in 2000. Between 40 and 50 percent of the foreigners who naturalize are able to keep their original nationality as well. There are 3.2 million foreigners among the 82 million German residents, including 1.9 million Turks. Germany has 77 mosques, including one opened in Berlin in December 2003.

Courts. Court decisions often constrain the ability of governments to remove particular foreigners. A German High Administrative Court ruled in December 2003 that foreign parents of a child with German citizenship cannot be deported because the constitutional protection of the family takes priority over immigration law.

In another case, the government won the right to deport Metin Kaplan, the so-called "Caliph of Cologne," but an Administrative Court held that he could not be sent to Turkey because he may face torture there. Under current German law, non-Germans with permanent residence rights can be deported after being sentenced to prison for three years or more; there are proposals to allow deportation for sentences of one year or more.

There are an estimated 10,000 Lebanese in Germany, many of whom were allowed to stay because of Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. Germany says that their tolerated status ended with Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000, but agreed not to deport Lebanese citizens without the prior consent of Lebanese authorities.

The Federal Labor Court ruled that employers could not fire workers who insist on wearing headscarves at work unless they can show that the headscarves hurt the business. Germany's constitutional court earlier allowed states to ban teachers from wearing headscarves in the classroom, provided they pass laws to this effect, so that headscarves are likely to be worn by teachers in some states but not others.

Labor Market. The German government won approval in December 2003 for most of its Agenda 2010, a package of 16 bills to make the labor market more flexible and reduce the payroll taxes paid by employers and workers to cover pension benefits and health insurance. To reduce payroll taxes, unemployment insurance benefits are being reduced for jobless workers, who must accept jobs outside their area and occupation after 12 (younger workers) to 18 (older workers) months of UI benefits or face a 50 percent reduction in support. Previously, workers could receive 32 months of UI benefits and did not have to accept jobs outside their occupation or area, or jobs that paid less than prevailing industry wages.

The goal of Agenda 2010 is to persuade mid-sized businesses to invest and create jobs. In Germany, family-owned businesses with fewer than 500 workers account for 80 percent of total employment. However, several large German firms including Commerzbank announced that they would no longer offer pensions to newly hired workers, which may increase worker resistance to further labor market reforms.

Germany aims to crack down on black market work by stepping up inspections of work places and levying fines of E 1,500 on private households that do not pay taxes on construction and other services. Private households using service providers, often immigrants, will have to retain receipts for two years to avoid penalties.

Austria. Some 40,000 foreigners applied for asylum in Austria in 2002 - 10,000 more than in 2001- prompting a proposal to allow authorities to make decisions on asylum applications within 72 hours.

Switzerland. Christoph Blocher, leader of the Swiss People's Party, won a post in the seven-seat federal Cabinet after October 2003 elections gave the party 27 percent of the vote. The People's Party opposes immigration and Swiss entry into the EU; one campaign ad compared asylum seekers to criminals.

The Federal Office of Immigration, Integration and Emigration supported studies that found second-generation foreigners often face problems on the Swiss job market, especially those from the ex-Yugoslavia. Researchers sent letters from seemingly identically qualified applicants, and those with Western European names were most likely to be considered.

Alan Cowell, "Switzerland Is Odd Piece in the Continent's New Mosaic," New York Times, December 10, 2003. "Father can't be deported," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 5, 2003. Natasha Bita, "Germany: Focus On Immigration," Australian, October 13, 2003.