Angela
Merkel to refugees: Integration is a must
German
government seeks to get tough on migrants with language tests and
lessons on German values.
By JANOSCH DELCKER
5/25/16, 5:21 PM CET Updated 5/25/16, 5:22 PM CET
BERLIN — Want to
settle in Germany? Then learn the language, get accustomed to Western
values, and find a job.
That is the
tough-love message the German government sent out to the hundreds of
thousands of refugees in the country with a new integration law,
approved by the government Wednesday.
While critics
describe the draft law, which will need to be ratified by parliament,
as largely symbolic, the German government sold it as an assertive
measure designed to reassure Germans about the integration of
predominantly Muslim asylum-seekers into society.
“We say it
clearly: We have learned from the past,” Chancellor Angela Merkel
said Wednesday morning, following a two-day government summit just
outside Berlin, adding, “and we expect that people take the
opportunities that we offer to integrate themselves.”
The draft law is a
compromise drawn up by Merkel’s Christian Democrats, its Bavarian
sister party, the Christian Social Union, and the junior coalition
partner, the Social Democrats (SPD).
“For the first
time, Germany is proactively addressing those who come to us, instead
of just watching what they’re doing,” SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel
said at a joint press conference with Merkel. “This is the great
difference to the [German] immigration history of the last decades.”
The planned
integration law, drawn up during all-night cabinet talks in April, is
the government’s response to the influx of refugees that reached a
peak last fall and led to the emergence of the anti-migrant,
anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland party.
Merkel’s
conservatives hope the law will recast the party as a bastion of
domestic security, imposing tougher conditions on those who move to
Germany, but the SPD — deserted by voters in large numbers and
facing the worst crisis in its post-war history — described the
draft proposal as “a first step towards an immigration law,” a
long-held SPD demand that had been continually blocked by the
conservatives, in particular the CSU.
If the draft becomes
law, refugees would be able to qualify for permanent residency after
five years, two years longer than at present — but only if they can
prove elementary German language skills, if they have a job which
covers “the largest part of their keep,” and if they take part in
so-called “orientation courses” on German culture and society.
Refugees who fail to
meet the requirements would face sanctions, such as having their
benefits cut, as well as failing to secure permanent residency.
“Language, work,
and saying ‘Yes’ to our system of values, these are the three
crucial factors for integration,” German Interior Minister Thomas
de Maizière said Wednesday.
But such demands are
putting a strain on German resources.
“We hear from the
institutions which are in charge of giving orientation courses that
they lack both teachers and classroom space. There are waiting lists,
and the institutions can’t keep up with creating additional
courses,” Hannes Schammann, a professor of migration policy at the
University of Hildesheim, told POLITICO.
Part of the problem
is the planned law calling for the courses to be extended from 60 to
100 hours and be expanded in scope to cover topics such as gender
equality.
De Maizière and
Labor Minister Andrea Nahles confirmed the education shortages during
a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Migration experts
such as Schammann, however, doubt that these courses, whether they
last for 60 or 100 hours, are comprehensive.
“Migration policy,
like few other policy fields, is largely about symbolism. It’s
about catering to … the wish of the voter,” Schammann said.
“Measures like the orientation courses are also intended to make
sure that the population feels reassured, and that the gap between
public opinion and actual policies is not getting too wide.”
Authors:
Janosch Delcker
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário