Integration Ministry

[Calvin Coolidge]

I'm going to list a few things, and I want you to see if you can find out what they have in common: The Sun, Taylor Swift, and the preliminary discussion on the Ministry of the Interior. Figure it out? These are all things that are hot. If you've been following the talks going on in the Senate Committee on Integration and Newcomer Experience (don't we all? ) over the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that in the midst of the sharp words being thrown around, real questions were raised over the effectiveness of the Ministry of the Interior. In this article, we will explore the functions of this Ministry, its current efforts to carry them out, as well as the recent discussion in the Senate, and the possible future of the Interior.

To begin, the Constitution of Europeia, Constitution V (2012), spells out the role of ministries in Europeia, according to section EA3 (2),

"In the execution of Government on the People's behalf, the President shall have specific authority and responsibility to appoint citizens as ministers to a Cabinet and to oversee that Cabinet such as to maintain the effective function of Government, including recruitment and welcoming, citizen integration, and management of foreign affairs. The People may by law provide further requirements and structure for the Cabinet."

As you can see, no specific ministry is mentioned by name, thereby leaving any duty listed in this section to be filled by any ministry. This leads to a lot of overlap between them, and with no actual legal distinction, we turn to the recently published "Join the Civil Service!" thread by Vice President Pope Lexus X, which briefly details the functions of each ministry. It describes the Ministry of the Interior like this,

"The Ministry of the Interior works on a number of different areas, as it works to recruit and integrate new members into our region and our forums."

The same thread breaks this down into three areas: Recruitment, Integration, and Retention. Essentially, that means getting new nations, getting them involved, and keeping them interested in Europeia. It's sort of like how you pick up women: you meet new women, you get involved with them, then you hit them with the chloroform and you... keep them interested in Europeia... yeah...
:innocent:
So, now that we know what the Interior should do, let's look at how it gets done. If we continue to look at these three aspects as the main three jobs of the Interior, as the thread we mentioned earlier does, we can see that in terms of Recruitment, "Europeia sends a number of telegrams to new nations in NationStates - and to nations in Europeia that haven't joined the forums yet to encourage them to get involved." In regards to Integration, "The Ministry of the Interior runs the Patron program, as a way to help newcomers find their way in Europeia." If you are wondering what the Patron program is, perhaps this quote from the Patron letter I received, from Minister of the Interior Drecq, will help, "The Patronage Program is in essence a partnering of established Citizens with new ones in order to help the Newcomer with any questions they might have." Lastly, for Retention, "work often involves collaboration with the Culture Ministry." Looking for more specifics? So am I. :emb: All of this information, unless otherwise stated, is from the same thread we've been referencing ("Join the Civil Service!").

Now for the juicy part: the discussion in the Senate. On July 4th, Senator modernsin opened a discussion on "what Interior is doing right now in terms of newcomer initiatives and citizen integration." At first, Minister Drecq stated that there is nothing new to report, and when asked a specific set of questions by Speaker HEM, essentially said the Interior is doing everything it can and that "there is little we can do more." Then, modernsin addressed Drecq directly, asking how he felt about the possibility of reviving the Ministry of Citizen Integration, as he felt that the Interior was failing in its current initiatives. This led Drecq to get offended, as he felt the current initiatives were not actually failing, and he did not address the possible revival idea. Speaker HEM tried to cool things down, pointing out there was nothing to get offended about, and then pointed out that it seemed the Interior has "lots of hands in lots of different pies." What followed mostly consisted of back and forth between modernsin and Drecq over what the other either said or did not say, with both using harsh words towards the other to assert their views. After intervening comments from both Speaker HEM and Senator Zenny Anumia, the talks settled and it seemed to be agreed by all parties that the idea of an Integration Ministry, focused on integrating newcomers and providing activities for them, had merit and might be implemented in the future.

Where does this leave us? It looks as if the ministries are under close examination, as a possible new one may be added, pulling from Interior as well as Culture, as HEM stated, "Culture and Interior seem to be nibbling around the edges in terms of getting members "integrated" and I think that may be hampering our overall efforts." When, or if, this will be put in place remains to be seen, but the idea that the Senate is looking for solutions to a problem such as this is highly encouraging. Regardless of how this all shakes out, an improvement is almost certainly guaranteed. How do you feel about these developments? Is the Senate making the right move? As always, I encourage the people of Europeia to learn more about this topic by looking at the Senate discussion thread titled "Preliminary Discussion on Interior," or asking questions to any of the users mentioned in this article. Also, this article features our first poll for this newspaper and, depending on how much feedback we receive, (I encourage you all to vote) they may become more frequent. Until next time, this is Calvin Coolidge, stuffing the ballot box.

 

[Lethen]

Good article!

Newcomer retention will always be a losing man's game. Many newcomers join the forums expecting us to have established dozens upon dozens of things for them to do right away and to keep doing later when they may be bored of our political discussions or work in a ministry as an Assistant Minister. No matter what you do, it's like they can never be entirely pleased.

 

[Anumia]

I think we waver back and forth in having an Integration Ministry (or smiliarly-named) because such efforts are wholly dependent upon the short-term relative perception of the competence, activity, and success of the respective Minister(s) of Interior and Integration. To whit:

When we have a comparatively successful Minister of Interior and unsuccessful Minister of Integration, the latter portfolio gets collapsed back into Interior;
When we have a comparatively successful Minister of Interior and successful Minister of Integration, the portfolio survives a term;
When we have a comparatively unsuccessful Minister of Interior and successful Minister of Integration, there is a clamour for the latter portfolio to be "permanently" given more power;
When we have a comparatively unsuccessful Minister of Interior without the latter portfolio, there are calls for its (re)creation.

This is the metric by which we deal with the concept of an Integration portfolio. I believe what we are seeing is not any objective need for Integration, but a reaction to the fact that Drecq (while in my opinion doing a solid job) is not doing quite as well as his predecessor Mouse did. That Mouse's time in the Ministry of Interior was a kind of once-in-a-Blue-Moon event and Drecq is doing better than several of her predecessors is irrelevant; people feel like the Ministry is not doing as well as it "should" (because previously we were spoiled if you will by her amazing results) and thus we need to break it up. In most cases it is a zero-sum game.

Over the past twelve or so months we have, I believe, seen one of the greatest influxes of newer members in a long time. Just look at the population of the current generation of newcomers and the generation immediately previous - there are significant numbers, which means we must be doing something right. Were there a dearth of newcomers who stay around, I might be inclined to agree that our efforts in this area were lacking.

To sum up: while I am not opposed to the idea of once again re-creating the Ministry of Integration, people should be aware that this is in no way a new phenomenon, and is almost as much a pendulum swing as the Ministry of Culture/Ministry of Communication argument.

 

[Mousebumples]

I think there's a lot to do in Interior - and one of the reasons why I'm no longer in Interior is because of a lack of free time to dedicate to the position. Drecq has performed capably in the position - but he's hardly one with loads of free time either. One benefit I could see to possibly splitting the portfolio - provided there are enough qualified/interested players to head such a theoretical ministry - is that you'd have two people to focus on all of the tasks currently set before Interior ... rather than 1 Minister trying to coordinate everything as best they can with whatever free time they can scrounge up.

We've got elections coming up in a few weeks - I look forward to seeing how the candidates (whomever they might be) address this topic ... or address this topic when I (or someone else) asks them about it, if it's not in their platform** already.

**Because expecting candidates for the Goldenblock to have a platform is not too much to ask .... right?

 

[Kraketopia]

Very well said Anumia.

 

[modernsin]

When we have a comparatively successful Minister of Interior and unsuccessful Minister of Integration, the latter portfolio gets collapsed back into Interior;
When we have a comparatively successful Minister of Interior and successful Minister of Integration, the portfolio survives a term;
When we have a comparatively unsuccessful Minister of Interior and successful Minister of Integration, there is a clamour for the latter portfolio to be "permanently" given more power;
When we have a comparatively unsuccessful Minister of Interior without the latter portfolio, there are calls for its (re)creation.

A good observation, Anumia. One that also carries over into the Culture-Comm relationship, I think.

Taking the long view of Europeia's history, Interior is a bit of an odd duck as far as Ministries go. How many times has it been radically changed, refocused, and renamed over the years? :emb: We tend to alter that Ministry's portfolio according to the public's short-term interest of the day. In the current Senate committee, I want us to recognize Interior's historical flexibility and see what we can do to maximize its efficacy with respect to newcomer integration, which is a fairly popular issue in some circles right now.

 

[Lethen]

Funny that Mouse said that. I've wondered before why we haven't appointed dual-Ministers previously for something as daunting as Interior.

 

[Anumia]

...except we have, previously.

 

[Lethen]

Not in recent memory though?

 

[modernsin]

Not in recent memory though?

Remember when Welfare was like a sub-Ministry under Interior? This was awhile ago, but it's happened before.

I wouldn't be opposed to that kind of restructuring, either.

 

[Anumia]

Not in recent memory though?

I'm pretty sure we had Citizen Integration in a term or two before mine.

 

[Lethen]

Not in recent memory though?

I'm pretty sure we had Citizen Integration in a term or two before mine.

...as a separate Ministry?

I'm talking about having two Ministers for one Ministry simultaneously.

 

[Mousebumples]

Not in recent memory though?

I'm pretty sure we had Citizen Integration in a term or two before mine.

...as a separate Ministry?

I'm talking about having two Ministers for one Ministry simultaneously.

That seems like a nightmare. What if the two ministers disagree on something major? Yes, the president could "pick which approach is right" but if the ministers end up working at cross-purposes or spending more time bickering than collaborating, that seems ... less than helpful.

Another option - what about bringing back the Deputy Minister program that Swak (I think it was Swak) had during his presidency? I know I saw that in the archives somewhere, but I wasn't around then, so I don't know how effective that actually was ...

 

[Anumia]

Oh. No.

 

[Lethen]

I don't think it would necessarily be a nightmare. Ideally you'd appoint two people who actually like each other. I mean when Anumia was very hands-on with the GAP during his terms when I was MoFC it was like having a co-Minister. Loved it.

I don't remember a thing about Swak's program.

 

[modernsin]

If you give the "co-Ministers" different portfolios, there wouldn't be much chance for conflict, outside of them arguing whose job is more important or something. It could work.

 

[Anumia]

If you give the "co-Ministers" different portfolios, you have created two Ministries.

 

[modernsin]

If you give the "co-Ministers" different portfolios, you have created two Ministries.

Again, that's basically what happened with Interior and Welfare. They were under one forum though.

 

[Malashaan]

I think that a factor we often don't consider, but seems to be fairly significant, is how the divide or lack thereof affects motivation. Structurally, it makes sense for there to be an interior minister overseeing everything and then divisions of staff for each aspect. This is similarly the case in Culture. However, what I've noticed is that the title "Minister" is far more likely to generate significant work from the holder than "Assistant Minister" or the like.

There's obviously a balance to be found, we don't want to devalue the title by making everyone a Minister, but I think it is a relevant consideration in how work is divided. Anumia and I were criticized more than once for having a cabinet that was too large, yet from the inside it often felt like dividing things up further would have helped.

With regards to the current state of the Interior Ministry, I think it is important to remember where we have come from. Over the course of the time I was VP we basically rebuilt it from the ground up and there are numerous (successful) programs that are on-going that either didn't exist or were unused a year ago. The current administration hasn't made any groundbreaking changes, but they didn't need to - they inherited a well functioning system. Is there more that could be done? Of course! I think the transition to the new administration had some hiccups, but everything seems to be functioning well now. I understand Drecq's frustration - he took over at a time when a lot of reform had already occurred and there wasn't really enough data to judge what was working and what needed tweaking.

One thing I will say is that the limited hard data that I have collected shows an improvement in recruitment and integration over the last six months, which is a reversal of steady decline that has happened over years. My experience and the data suggest that as a region grows and ages, it becomes more and more difficult to get new people involved. This conceptually makes sense to me - the hardest thing for me coming here was getting an understanding of the vast amount of history and culture that affect even basic decision making in government (e.g., why people respond so viscerally to suggestions of creating an economy). That body of knowledge required to truly understand Europeia continues to grow, and it can be overwhelming.

If anyone has any specific ideas, I'm sure the ministry would be very interested, and is be more than willing to advocate for implementation of good ones.