The Faeser plan to make family reunification easier
Nancy Faeser (SPD), Federal Minister of the Interior and Homeland – “Invitation to fraud and an encouragement for identity fraudsters”
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Bernd von Jutrczenka
Easier family reunification and easier access to the labor market, but extension of exit detention – the Interior Ministry is discussing drastic changes to German asylum and migration policy. This is based on a draft law that is available to WELT AM SONNTAG.
MAmid the worsening migration crisis in Germany and the European Union, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is planning far-reaching political reforms. This comes from a draft bill for the “Family and Labor Market Integration Act” (FAMIntG), which is available exclusively to WELT AM SONNTAG. One of the most important planned changes: so-called family reunification is to be made significantly easier.
According to information from this newspaper, the draft, dated September 4th, is not yet in a departmental vote. The document states that the government “wants to create a new beginning in migration and integration policy that does justice to a modern country of immigration”. To achieve this, people should be “integrated into society more quickly”.
In 2016, due to the refugee crisis, the right of those entitled to subsidiary protection to bring family members to Germany was suspended. Two years later, a limit of 1,000 people per month was introduced. This group consists of people who do not receive refugee protection within the meaning of the Geneva Refugee Convention, but who can provide valid reasons why they are at serious risk of harm in their country of origin. The protection status is initially valid for one year and can be extended. The draft from the Ministry of the Interior now stipulates that in the future, family reunification for those entitled to subsidiary protection should be treated the same as that of recognized refugees – as it was until 2016. There should also be no limit on the number of people.
There should also be significant relief for relatives entering the country for unaccompanied minor refugees. The draft states that “for the first time, sibling reunification, i.e. the joint entry of parents with children to unaccompanied minors already living in Germany, should be regulated and thus made much easier.”
This would mean that siblings would also have an easier right to reunify – previously this reunification could usually only take place if one parent had already been granted protection in Germany. Specifically, it is proposed that sibling reunification should “in future take place simultaneously with parental reunification for an unaccompanied minor.” Facilitation for family reunification had already been anchored in the traffic light government’s coalition agreement.
People from safe countries of origin, for example, remain excluded from work permits
The plan is likely to bring about far-reaching changes in the country so that asylum seekers and tolerated people will have easier access to the labor market. “Anyone who entered Germany before December 7, 2021 and is staying in the federal territory with a tolerated status or with a residence permit will be allowed to work,” it says. The prerequisite for this should, among other things, be the approval of the Federal Employment Agency. The immigration authorities obviously no longer have to agree. This means that people from safe countries of origin, people who “stubbornly” prevented their identity from being established, and people whose asylum application was rejected as “obviously inadmissible or unfounded” remain excluded from work permits.
Also interesting: If authorities are unable to establish identities, as a “last resort” it will in future be possible for foreigners to provide information about their identity and nationality by swearing an oath.
In addition to making things easier, the paper also provides for tightening measures. For example, violations of entry and residence bans should in future become grounds for detention within the context of preventive detention. In addition, the maximum duration of detention on departure should be extended from ten to 28 days. In addition, it is planned to make it easier to enter refugee accommodation in order to improve the success of deportations.
According to information from this newspaper, when and in what form the draft law will end up in the departmental vote is still uncertain – as is the attitude of the traffic light partners to the Faeser Ministry’s proposals.
Migration policy will be a topic in the Bundestag again on Friday morning. Then the consultation takes place Application from the Union faction “Germany Pact in Migration Policy – Stop Irregular Migration” instead of. Among other things, the CDU and CSU are calling for the incentives for secondary migration to Germany to be reduced and pull factors to be avoided.
