Asylum law for those “who need us”, immigration law for those “who we need” – according to the plans of the Ampel coalition, this should soon become a reality. What that means and why it took more than 20 years to do it.
Column by
Heribert Prantl
Changing lanes on the motorway takes a few seconds. In politics, it can last for years. But it has seldom lasted as long as in German migration policy: More than 20 years ago, the red-green Schröder government began to flash, led by a 21-person immigration commission chaired by the former CDU Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth. One wanted to come to a future-oriented immigration and integration law; that failed because of Angela Merkel’s opposition and the Union’s power games in the Federal Council. Germany stayed on the old track.