Millions of Germans are afraid of deportations

After the meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam, plans for mass deportations are causing great fear for many people in Germany. This was the result of a representative survey commissioned by ARD magazine Panorama result.

In 2022, 23.8 million people with a migrant background lived in Germany. This corresponds to a share of the population of 28.7 percent. Almost exactly half have German citizenship, around twelve million people. The majority of them were already born in Germany.

The meeting in Potsdam, which was also attended by AfD politicians and members of the Values ​​Union, was also about them: According to information from the Correctiv research network, the plans discussed there to expel large numbers of people with a migration background also affected “non-assimilated” German citizens.

“Clearly unconstitutional”

German citizenship is particularly protected in the Basic Law. Article 16 states: “German citizenship may not be revoked.”

This provision was inserted into the Basic Law under the impression of the National Socialist practice of forced expatriation. In essence, it also applies to people with dual citizenship, emphasizes constitutional lawyer Ulrich Karpenstein, vice president of the German Bar Association. in an interview with panorama.

Although the Basic Law allows for an exception for dual nationals, it provides very few options for revoking their citizenship, for example if terrorist acts occur abroad. Even if another option were to be added to the list, “it must under no circumstances be linked to skin color, as was discussed at this Potsdam meeting. It must also not be linked to origin; it must not be linked to one “However assimilation is to be defined,” explains Karpenstein.

“The plans expressed are clearly unconstitutional. You would have to ignore the Basic Law and international human rights conventions.” That presupposes a coup.

Many Germans are afraid

Nevertheless – or precisely because of this – the “mass deportation plans” discussed in Potsdam scare many Germans. In a representative survey by infratest dimap on behalf of panorama 51 percent of those surveyed with a migrant background said that the plans caused them great or very great fear. 48 percent of those surveyed without foreign roots see it the same way. In the East, fear is slightly greater (49 percent great/very great) than in the West (42 percent).

There are no significant differences in the age groups, only among 35 to 49 year olds is fear slightly lower at 41 percent. The fear is particularly pronounced among supporters of the Greens and the SPD at 69 and 61 percent respectively. Only eight percent of AfD supporters are afraid, while 76 percent answered that their fear is less or non-existent.

The AfD distances itself

The AfD distanced itself from the meeting in Potsdam and spoke of a private meeting. The party recently explained in a position paper that its concept of so-called “remigration” includes all measures and incentives for the constitutional and legally compliant return of foreigners who are obliged to leave the country to their homeland: “Unconstitutional demands such as (…) the deportation of German citizens with a migration background meet with our resolute rejection .”

So the AfD rejects deportations of Germans? On the morning of January 10, 2024, shortly after the contents of the meeting in Potsdam became public through “Correctiv,” read this a posting on X Something else: The AfD called for the hurdles for withdrawing German citizenship to be lowered and declared that they not only wanted to consistently deport foreigners, “but also wanted to revoke the passports of criminals, menaces, terrorists and rapists.”

“The automatism of not deporting criminals because they also have German citizenship must be abolished,” AfD federal spokeswoman Alice Weidel is quoted as saying.

Not possible under current law

This at least suggests that the AfD’s goal is, if in doubt, to denaturalize Germans with a migration background. According to the current legal situation, such deportations are not possible. Constitutional lawyers such as Ulrich Karpenstein also consider a corresponding change in the law to be unconstitutional against the background of Article 16 of the Basic Law.

In an interview with panorama AfD member of the Bundestag René Springer explained: “As an alternative for Germany, we clearly stand by the Basic Law, which does not mean that we do not also tighten laws where necessary when we are in government responsibility.”

This tightening will be decided by the sovereign, in the German Bundestag: “We will have to negotiate what is tolerable for us and what is no longer acceptable. And at what point the hurdles will be lowered to enable the revocation of naturalizations.”

AfD get-together in Gera gives an impression

You got an impression of what is “tolerable” for the AfD at the AfD get-together in Gera in December. There, a visitor asked Thuringia’s AfD state leader Björn Höcke what actually happened to the millions: “I still call them foreigners now, but they have long since had a German passport and have German citizenship.”

Höcke answered, among other things: “We will be able to live with 20, 30 percent fewer people in Germany without any problems. I actually think that makes ecological sense.”

In doing so, he pretty much named the proportion of people with a migrant background in Germany – 28.7 percent – including those with a German passport. On panoramaHöcke says that he was misunderstood. The number results from the demographic catastrophe in which Germany finds itself.

You can see the entire film on Thursday, February 8th at 9:45 p.m. on Das Erste and in the ARD media library.