France and Germany in the refugee crisis: united in diversity?

The first session of the Think Tanks Tandem1 initiative was held at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey near Paris. It was attended by some forty representatives of German and French think tanks as well as German, French and EU authorities. The first round table addressed the issue of migration policy while the second was devoted to the fight against Islamist terrorism.

The first round table was introduced by Marc-Olivier Padis, Director of Studies with Terra Nova, and Stefan Dehnert, Director of the Paris Bureau of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Numerous German and French experts intervened (see list in Appendix). This synthesis endeavours to summarise the main analyses and recommendations resulting from the exchange of French and German views on migration policy, identifying both points of divergence and convergence.