The second of the three organizations offers a compelling case of research being used as a strategy of organizational legitimation. It exemplifies well the central role of expertise in enhancing the authority of German public administration. The German civil service is often described as the archetypical case of a Weberian bureaucracy, deriving legitimacy from the rationality of its structures and procedures. Part of this credibility rests on demonstrating its expertise and the sound scientific grounding of decisions. One would therefore expect knowledge to be crucial in underpinning the authority of agencies involved in migration policy, an area characterized by quite fierce organizational rivalry. And indeed, the new Research Group established in the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge – hereafter referred to as ‘the Federal Office’) in 2004 appears to have performed a strong legitimizing function.

Similarly to the UK case, one might also expect knowledge to have played a substantiating function. In Chapter 5, we saw how in early 2000 the SPD–Green government had launched a new agenda in the area of labour migration, attempting to make the case for a more liberal and business-oriented approach. In so doing, the government had tried to encourage a more technocratic style of debate on these issues. However, as we shall see, this had rather limited impact on the use of research in policy debates or within the administration, and there is little evidence that plans for the Federal Office's Research Group were developed with this substantiating purpose in mind.