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Like the promise to then Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann to take in the refugees trapped in the Budapest train station: to keep the borders open and not to leave the neighbors alone. “When people stop at the border,” he replies, “then you have to treat them like people.” Since then more than a million refugees have lived in Germany, what has changed?
Integration: “If you are concerned about integration issues, five years is not a period; they are counted in generations,” says Olaf Kleist, a political scientist specializing in refugee research. What can be said so far: Much has been accomplished, especially through the voluntary engagement of civil society, Kleist said. Cities and municipalities have come forward to receive people and organize language courses, in search of accommodation and employment. It is positive that three-quarters of the refugees live in apartments or houses, “despite the general shortage of housing.”
Working market: According to the Institute for Economic Research, refugees have been well integrated into the German labor market: in 2016, 14 percent were in paid employment, compared to 43 percent in 2018. Reasons why time is still needed to reaching the labor market: asylum procedures are lengthy, the language must be learned, school or professional qualifications must be recognized or compensated. Which it also shows: there are more working men than women, says researcher Kleist, “which is often justified by their role in family care.” You have to catch up here. It is also unclear how the consequences of the pandemic will affect: many refugees have recently lost their jobs because they worked in industries affected by the closure, such as hotels and restaurants.
Asylum policy: A ceiling of 180,000 to 220,000 refugees per year, restrictions on family reunification, an expansion of safe countries of origin and massive accommodation for rapid processing of asylum procedures – the German government has tightened its asylum policy since 2015. The criticism comes from NGOs and experts who see ad hoc measures that are constitutionally questionable. “It has been shown, for example, that Syrians in particular who have recognized or subsidiary status will stay permanently, and if the family is not allowed to continue, it has a negative effect on integration,” Kleist analyzes. The situation is equally difficult for those whose deportations cannot be carried out (due to illness, lack of documentation or because they do not want to recover their country of origin): they remain in the country, however, family reunification is excluded and they do not receive the same social benefits than those entitled to asylum or recognized refugees. .
Internal security: The crime rate for immigrants (people with asylum status, tolerance, or unauthorized residency) increased from 6.5 to 9.7 percent between 2015 and 2016, but has been declining ever since. This is demonstrated by statistics from the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Criminal Police Office. However, events such as New Year’s Eve in Cologne, when women were harassed by migrants at the main train station, or the murder of a 14-year-old girl by a person forced to leave the country, influenced the mood. And it certainly contributed to “that flight being perceived as problematic,” says Simon Goebel of the Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Flight and Migration Center.
