refugees
Bovenschulte: More support for city states
Bremen’s Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte calls for a higher financial contribution from the federal government when it comes to refugees. photo
© Focke Strangmann/dpa
Refugees in Germany are distributed according to population and tax revenue – from the point of view of Bremen’s mayor, an unfavorable calculation for city states.
In view of the increased number of refugees Bremen’s mayor Andreas Bovenschulte more money from the federal government and a different distribution of the refugees.
“The city states are particularly affected because the distribution according to the Königstein key not only takes into account the number of inhabitants, but also the tax capacity,” said the SPD head of government of the German Press Agency. Bremen takes in around 15 percent more refugees than the state would have to based on the number of inhabitants. “It would be good to change that, but there is currently no majority in the group of states.”
More federal involvement
All the more important is a higher financial contribution from the federal government to the costs. “If a lot of people come to us from another country without any knowledge of German, then the integration costs us a lot of money. Not just for accommodation, but also, for example, for language training and for daycare centers and schools. All of this is not available for free.” , emphasized Bovenschulte. In principle, however, it is good that more children and young people are living in Bremen again in this way.
Only recently, Berlin’s Senator for Integration, Cansel Kiziltepe, called for changes to the distribution mechanism in Germany. A special rule is needed for the densely populated city states, said the SPD politician at the end of July.
In Germany, the Königstein key determines how many asylum seekers a federal state must accept. This is calculated on the basis of tax revenue and the population. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Berlin accounts for 5.2 percent, Hamburg 2.6 percent and Bremen just under one percent.