How Bertelsmann helped establish a welcome culture in Germany for the World Economic Forum – Part 1

13.12.2018 | Norbert Hähring | http://norberthaering.de |

The World Economic Forum of major international corporations has decisively advanced and influenced the global migration pact. The main aim of the forum was to establish a positive image of migration in the public sphere – a welcome culture – because it wanted to gain access to a larger, cheaper workforce by promoting migration. I had already written about that. Now it’s about who implemented it in Germany.
At least since 2009, the World Economic Forum has had a Global Agenda Council on Migration whose task included influencing the United Nations‘ migration policy in the interests of corporations. The World Economic Forum succeeded in becoming an institutionalised part of the advisory process. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), associated with the UN, was part of the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum. It came out in 2013 with a study entitled „The Business Case for Migration“.
In fulfillment of a UN mandate, IOM delivered its recommendations for the UN High Level Dialogue on Migration in 2013, shortly after the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Much of the „Business Case for Migration“ is reflected in it, including Recommendation No 1 to turn public perception and discussion around to the effect that immigration is not a problem for destination countries, but a benefit.
One of the 1000 „partners“ financing the World Economic Forum is Bertelsmann. In 2016, the Bertelsmann Stiftung awarded the Reinhard Mohn Prize, endowed with 200,000 euros, to the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab.
In the same year that the World Economic Forum published its „Business Case for Migration,“ the Bertelsmann Stiftung, which is politically extremely influential in Germany, published a book with the beautiful title: „Deutschland öffenne dich! Welcome culture and diversity at the heart of society.“ First sentence is:
„Germany is an immigration society.“
In the foreword, Foundation Chairman Jörg Dräger writes that for demographic reasons, Germany must attract more skilled workers into the country, not only academics, but also nursing and service personnel. Therefore, the path to a welcome culture must be actively shaped.
„A new, positive image of migrants, namely as immigrants who enrich our society, is essential for widely accepted social diversity“.
Smart policies and instruments in migration and integration management alone were not enough to achieve this. In addition, positive images of diversity must be anchored in the population.
Ulrich Kober and Rita Süssmuth write in the chapter „Backlog demand: from an immigration country against its will to a country with a welcome culture“:
„The debate about the shortage of skilled workers is the context in which the talk of the welcome culture has emerged in recent years.
The founder of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington and Brussels and chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Migration of the World Economic Forum from 2009 to 2011, Demetrios Papademetrioum, may also contribute a chapter. He is also head of the Transatlantic Council on Migration, which has set itself the task of „encouraging and promoting greater mobility,“ and is sponsored by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the German government, and the Open Society Institute, among others.
As early as November 2011, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Papademetriou’s Migration Policy Institute jointly hosted a conference in Berlin entitled „Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration. The final sentence of the joint communiqué is (my translation from English):
„States have a responsibility, in close cooperation with civil society, to lay the foundations for immigrants to be seen as people who make an important contribution to society, and to affirm this message consistently and systematically“.
Anyone who would like to can now look through the UN migration pact that has just been adopted again to see whether they are familiar with the tenor.
Part 2 deals with the Foundation’s extensive activities after 2015.