IMMIGRATION : PRESIDENCY PLANS TO SET UP NETWORK OF EDUCATION SPONSORS'.

• Position: Brief article

In preparation for the special ministerial meeting on immigration in Potsdam on 10 and 11 May, the German government is getting ready to set up a network of education sponsors' to help young immigrants. The project is one of a number of intended measures to be undertaken by the German government to help young immigrants to integrate.

The education sponsors' will be a group of volunteers who will step in "in areas where the parents are unable to provide their children with the necessary support either because they do not understand our education system or because they themselves do not have the necessary level of education," explained Maria Bohmer, the German Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. Pilot projects already exist. The aim is to extend the network to the entire country in 2007.

The priority of the national integration plan is to provide...