German term (edited): Ausl�nderbeauftragte

EdithK got this, and got it quickly, but I'm entering this in order to give some additional information. I'm confident that it's correct but am *not* after Edith's points ;-)

For the job at federal level, the German Embassy in London has used "Federal Commissioner for Foreigners' Affairs".

http://www.german-embassy.org.uk/reform_of_germany_s_citizen...

Many Länder and the federal government now use the term "Integrationsbeauftragte/r" for the job once known as "Ausländerbeauftragte".

http://www.integrationsbeauftragter.nrw.de/

At federal level it's currently Marieluise Beck (who *is* a Staatssekretaärin): "Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Migration, Flüchtlinge und Integration".

At local (Stadt/Kreis) and regional (Land) level, however, the position and powers of ABs varies greatly. Some have decision-making powers and staff, others are part-time and only have an advisory or consultative role. Some are only concerned with "Ausländer", others also have other jobs.

The BBC and others have used "Commissioner for Minority Affairs" to translate this. One of the "!others" is here:
http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/web/conferences/documents/progr...

But this translation leads to problems: "Minorities" isn't the same as people of "Black and Minority Ethnic" background - and even it if were, that wouldn't take into account the fact that many Ausländerbeauftragte/Integrationsbeauftragte are not responsible for the large number of people with an immigration background who are, legally, ethnic Germans.

Francis has also pointed to something important: what is meant by "Ausländer" in Germany isn't the same as most native speakers of English understand when someone says "foreigners". (I have frequently looked after visiting Germans in West Yorkshire (area of the UK with large ethnic minority populations in urban centres) and heard them remark repeatedly on the large number of "foreigners". They were simply seeing non-white faces, and hearing Punjabi and Urdu being spoken, and drawing what in many parts of Germany would be the most likely conclusion, empirically: someone of e.g. Turkish background in Germany is still more likely than not to be a Turkish rather than a German national, although this is changing.

But I can't agree with Francis that we should use "aliens". Whilst it is indeed the officially-used term in the US, and thus technically correct for a US audience, it would often be misunderstood (or not understood) in the UK. When writing about immigration and ethnic minority issues in Germany for a UK audience, I explain the background briefly and define terms (such as "integration commissioner"). If your text doesn't do this, then I suggest you use commissioner for foreigners' affairs". It's not precise, and it won't lead to a full understanding of what the job is, but I've been working in this field for 15 years and not found a better option.


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Note added at 15 hrs 42 mins (2005-01-06 09:06:25 GMT)
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Oops - a couple of typos in the above. Comes from trying to type a lot into a little white box... Please regard parentheses as closed and pretend that the sentences are all grammatically correct. ;-)