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Study of future trends reveals the potential for profound changes in traditional public and voluntary relationships and for the operation of agencies

Current integration regimes increasingly require migrants to share constitutional values. Taking Switzerland as a case study, the paper analyzes this integration requirement based on the legal framework, problem-centred interviews among public authorities and street-level bureaucrats, case files and case law. It argues, first, that the requirement re/produces the social imaginary of society as a community of value(s), which in turn legitimizes aggressive integrationism. Second, the values concerned are to a very large extent an empty signifier that can be filled with almost any cultural stuff. This is the case, third, as long as the reference to abstract universal liberal principles is maintained, revealing a distinctly liberal boundary making. In conclusion, the value requirement turns out to be old-fashioned cultural assimilation in a contemporary liberal guise, positing liberal values as an achieved feature of modern societies, shared by all members of the community of value(s).

What is the significance of Germany's visible surplus and invisible deficit? W.A.P. Manser argues that it represents a weakness in the German economy in contrast to Britain which has an invisible trade surplus and a visible deficit.

That there is over‐employment in government services is now widely accepted, except by its employees. Of the recent increase in revealed unemployment, most has come from private industry and almost none from government employment. William Manser reveals the statistics and argues for ways of cutting government over‐employment.