Immigration: towards a tightening of rules and controls in Germany

The German Chancellor and the leaders of the country’s 16 regional states are meeting in the afternoon for a negotiating session that is likely to last many hours. The first leads have already leaked in the press and show the concern of the government and the regions at the increase in arrivals from abroad. 

In the first four months of the year, some 101,981 asylum applications were submitted in Germany, an increase of 78% compared to the same period in 2022. Federal government and regions could decide to put in place permanent controls at the borders with neighboring countries and help to strengthen controls at the EU’s external borders. 

Deportations should also be facilitated by the establishment of « arrival centers » for refugees where their applications would be processed, according to a line of discussion mentioned by the popular daily Bild. The duration of custody in the event of violation of entry or stay bans could be extended. 

This announced hardening comes in a context of the rise of the far right, in particular in the former GDR. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is thus credited with around 15% of voting intentions in the polls, compared to 10.3% obtained in the last general elections in 2021. 

Germany has become in recent days the country of the European Union hosting the most Ukrainians, with more than a million refugees. Their reception has had repercussions on housing and the places available in the education system, argue the regions and municipalities, which are calling for aid from the federal state. 

The Länder thus want to return to the old system of flat-rate payment by the federal state, which they also want to see increased to 1,000 euros per month per refugee. They also want 100% support – against 75% currently – for the accommodation of refugees. But the government of Scholz, which has already indicated that it will pay 15.3 billion euros this year for the reception of refugees, is reluctant to put its hand in its pocket. 

However, the state promises to speed up asylum application procedures, which currently take an average of 26 months, thanks in particular to improved digitization.