Outsourcing The Government: McKinsey Takes Over The German Asylum Process

Germany has paid global management consultant firm McKinsey 29.3 million euros for work with the federal migration office in the wake of the refugee influx into Europe. The collaboration began in October 2015 and continues to this day.

McKinsey’s involvement may have sped up the asylum application process—efficiency is what the company is good at—but it hasn’t necessarily been a boon for human rights. Nuanced decisions based on evidence, which may be cumbersome but require human evaluation over extended periods of time, are crucial when it comes to deciding the fate of individuals and families.

For instance, McKinsey has favored temporary leave to stay over longer visas, which may buy a refugee a year of safety, but no security, and does nothing for integration or family reunification. Apparently arbitrary decisions based on minimal information have become commonplace. “This is a very sensitive area of law where you can’t just streamline things,” says a Hamburg law professor in response.

It’s vital and urgent to keep tabs on how governments are outsourcing processes like these to consulting firms, especially because their involvement in political processes is becoming increasingly common—and kept completely under wraps. One has to wonder why outsourcing governmental decisions to consultants is not a major subject for public debate.