Kerstin Lasser can hardly believe it. For three years she fought in vain to find a position in her bakery in Wallerstein near Nördlingen in Bavaria and Swabia. Nobody wanted to do the work. Then the solution seemed near. A 23-year-old from Sierra Leone wanted to become an apprentice. The young man was well integrated and hardworking, says Lasser. Amadou had an apartment, the training contract was ready to be signed.
But Amadou’s time in Germany was running out. Those who are only tolerated will have to leave the country sooner or later. Amadou was forced to leave the country after five years. For months he has been trying to get back to Germany from the Ghanaian capital Accra. The bakery supports his fight for certificates and a passport – so far in vain. Amadou is stuck. And Kerstin Lasser is stunned: “Refugees have been fighting for integration for years.” And when the time comes, they have to go.
The federal government now wants to improve the situation of refugees and immigrants with a reform of the right of residence – and prevent cases of hardship. Foreigners who have been living in Germany on a tolerated basis for more than five years as of January 1, 2022 and who are well integrated should have easier prospects of permanent residence in the future. A corresponding bill by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the so-called Opportunity Residence Act, passed the Federal Cabinet on Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, almost 140,000 of the 240,000 tolerated foreigners in Germany have been living here for more than five years – often without any possibility of integration, for example through language courses. Many of these people live in constant fear of deportation, says Stephan Theo Reichel, chairman of the Matteo aid organization. Foreigners are tolerated if they are not recognized as entitled to asylum but are threatened with torture in their home country, for example.
“We want to actively shape the future instead of reluctantly managing it,” says Faeser
Even if the regulation only applies to some of those who have been tolerated: Faeser sees the reform as a step towards modern immigration law in Germany. “We want to actively shape the future instead of reluctantly managing,” said Faeser on Wednesday. However, the planned rules should only apply to people who “are committed to the free democratic basic order”.
Anyone who fulfills this and the five-year period should be given the opportunity within a further year to fulfill the requirements for a permanent right of residence. This includes securing a living and completing language courses, for example. “Communicating our values and language is always important, no matter how long people have been here,” said Faeser.
On the other hand, it is more difficult for migrants who have repeatedly provided false information about their own identity in order to prevent their deportation. The law should not apply to them. Criminals are also excluded – unless they have been sentenced to fines totaling a maximum of 50 daily rates or under juvenile criminal law. If the one-year period elapses without being used, the applicants revert to the toleration status.
The traffic light coalition hopes to counteract the shortage of skilled workers in Germany in this way. Thousands of handicraft businesses, restaurants and shops lack staff. The economy in particular is pushing for pragmatic procedures in the right of residence based on the principle of training instead of deportation because of the great shortage of personnel, said the Green politician Filiz Polat. After the summer break, the project should go into parliamentary proceedings, and a Bundestag decision could be made by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, sharp protests came from the Union. “With the draft law, the federal government is giving up the enforcement of the right to asylum,” said the domestic policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Alexander Throm (CDU). Süddeutsche Zeitung. “It rewards the wrong people.” The target group of the planned law is exclusively people whose asylum application has been rejected and who have stubbornly resisted their obligation to leave the country for years. Nevertheless, they are tolerated in Germany, and that alone is a concession on the part of the state. “We think it’s the wrong signal to make the stay even easier for this group of all people.”
As a result, the law will motivate more new migrants to come, says the CDU politician. Because the fact that the regulation should only apply to people who were already in Germany on January 1, 2022 is a detail that “probably receives little attention” in the countries of origin.
On the other hand, NGOs warned on Wednesday that the easier immigration rules might not help many of those affected. The reform also provides for simplifications in the proof of identity, for example if passports are missing. However, this is only an optional rule. Federal states that wanted to continue to act with a heavy hand could continue to do so if a foreigner could not completely document his identity.
There should also be simplifications in the case of labor migration
The federal government is also planning to make labor migration easier. For example, the draft provides simpler rules for the family reunification of skilled workers and IT specialists. In the future, relatives should also be able to enter the country directly without a language test. In addition, more people should have access to language and integration courses.
On the other hand, deportation rules are being tightened further, especially for foreigners who have committed crimes. So it is planned in the draft that detention pending deportation can be extended from three to six months. This should give the authorities more time to prepare for a deportation, for example to clarify the identity, obtain the missing papers and organize a seat on an airplane.
The traffic light coalition also wants to launch a second migration package before the end of the year. In their coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed, among other things, to make naturalization easier for people from the so-called guest worker generation.