Administration without Frontiers? European Migration Law: Germany

Administration without Frontiers?
European Migration Law

Germany

Daniel Thym

Dr. (Berlin), habil. (Berlin), LL.M. (London),
Senior Associate of the Walter-Hallstein-Institute for European Constitutional Law
at the Faculty of Law at the Humboldt-University, Berlin

During the past 30 years the Federal Republic of Germany has incrementally de­veloped its original model for the regulation of international migration. Its contin­ued transformation is being driven by domestic political decisions and the EU har­moni­sation measures adopted in recent years. Several decades of experience with the regulation of international migration characterise German migration law as one im­portant foundation and source of inspiration for common standards at European level. However, European harmonisation does not entail the end of na­tional speci­ficities. Since EU legislation requires national implementing measures, the highly differentiated regulatory framework of German administrative and mi­gration law continues to characterise the particularity of the German approach to­wards the regulation of international migration. Only this awareness for the contin­ued rele­vance of national legislation within the harmonised European legislative frame­work aptly describes the present and future role of German migration law.