The co-chair of the SPD, Esken, has daily topics State and local authorities assured “full support” for the integration of refugees. She criticized the planned cuts for migration and integration in the future federal budget.
The co-chair of the SPD, Saskia Esken, said in an interview with the ARD daily topics, the migration advisory service would do crucial work in the integration of refugees. It is important that “Parliament takes another look at this budget”. This important task must be “adequately financed”. The budget is the “royal right of Parliament,” Esken continued. “We will pay special attention to these issues there.”
The draft of the government budget for 2024 approved by the Federal Cabinet provides for a budget reduced by 218 million euros for the Ministry of Family Affairs compared to the previous year. According to the ministry, the federal program for advising and caring for foreign refugees is also affected. The amount of budget funds available in 2024 still has to be discussed and decided by the Bundestag.
“World Events is not a Netflix series”
When asked by CDU politician Jens Spahn for a change in migration policy, she said: “World events are not a Netflix series where we can just press pause.” If people come from Ukraine or other countries and seek protection, you have to react. “We have a humanitarian obligation to react. We have a right of asylum that is part of our constitution and where we clearly stand,” said Esken.
The federal government supports states and municipalities in the “important tasks of caring for children in daycare centers and schools, accommodating people and ensuring their integration, if possible also with access to the labor market,” says Esken. “Countries and municipalities have our full support.”
Spahn demands upper limits
Jens Spahn called for a change of course in migration policy at the weekend. “Germany needs a break from this completely uncontrolled asylum migration,” he told the “Bild am Sonntag”. At the EU’s external borders, there must therefore be a signal: “No one can go any further on this path.” He had advocated taking in and distributing 300,000 to 500,000 refugees a year in Europe. The United Nations refugee agency should choose the people.
The president of the district council, Reinhard Sager, described Spahn’s initiative as essentially correct. “Only the federal government can control and regulate immigration, the capacities of the districts to take in and integrate those seeking protection are more than fully utilized. We are increasingly behind our claim to be able to take in and integrate refugees appropriately,” he told the dpa news agency. The districts need more political momentum here.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities has also been calling for a fresh start in migration policy for a long time, with the aim of organizing and limiting what is happening, said General Manager Gerd Landsberg of the dpa.
Esken emphasized that the agreement in the European Council had come a long way. “16 years before that, Mrs. Faeser’s predecessors had little success there,” she said. The task is so great that Europe can only do it together.
Regarding the policies of the Danish Social Democrats, who are making migration policy much more rigid and thus depriving the right-wing populists of their approval, Esken said they would not support them. “We clearly see it as our duty to examine every single application for asylum and to take in people who need protection.”