In Frankfurt an der Oder this Tuesday, federal police officers arrested 14 people from Afghanistan who were hanging around in a cemetery. It turned out: all were men, all were between 18 and 27 years old. All had no papers. And all are now part of the German asylum system.
This also applies to the Islamist terrorist hangman who was arrested by investigators from the federal prosecutor’s office on Monday – in Essen. There has been a stable clan and Islamist scene in the north of Essen for years. The Syrian managed to hide in Essen-Frohnhausen for several years. He came to Germany as an asylum seeker.
Germans distrust German asylum law
Individual cases, highlights. But: More and more Germans distrust German asylum law. This does not prevent the traffic light government from wanting to ease the right to stay for those who were originally obliged to leave Germany, as well as access to German citizenship.
A deportation officer was recently installed in Berlin. But FDP man Joachim Stamp, who used to be integration minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, is skeptical about his chances of reaching deportation agreements with the countries of origin. Which he is right about, because in reality all federal interior ministers of the past few years failed because of this idea.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is now campaigning for a new edition of European sea rescue in the Mediterranean. The Greens call the many dead refugees in the Mediterranean an open wound in Europe. The Greens say not a word about the other side of this tragedy, about the fact that this migration is organized crime organized by international gangs of smugglers.
Devastating finding for traffic lights
The most recent Allensbach survey reported by the FAZ contains a devastating finding for the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP.
It reads: “There is little confidence that the governing parties will regulate immigration in the interests of the country. Just under a fifth believe they are capable of convincing regulations; all parties in the traffic light coalition have lost serious confidence here since the beginning of 2022: a year ago, 18 percent believed the SPD was capable of convincing immigration regulations, currently ten percent; Trust in the Greens has dropped from nine to six percent, and in the FDP even from seven to four percent.”
The Germans have nothing against the Ukrainians fleeing from Putin’s hordes. According to Allensbach, they are concerned about the refugees from Islamic countries. This has nothing to do with racism, but is based on experience. There are no crime reports about Ukrainians seeking refuge in Germany. So far, Ukrainians have not attracted attention with knife attacks either. These are people who, according to Allensbach boss Renate Köcher, also look like refugees in Germany: women and children in understandable need.
The long-standing dispute over German and European asylum law
80 percent of those surveyed by Allensbach do not believe it is possible to integrate Afghans and Syrians into the German labor market. And the people are right about that, too, because around two-thirds of the refugees from Syria receive support, according to the authorities, and it is one in two Afghans.
These two refugee groups are also conspicuous when it comes to crime. The latest figures come from Germany’s southwest. According to the new crime statistics for Baden-Württemberg, the number of suspects from Afghanistan has doubled within a year. The number of Syrian suspects increased by 25 percent last year.
The dispute over German and European asylum law is now decades old. No government has found a solution – even the drastic change in the Basic Law 30 years ago did not bring about a turning point. It is also up to Europe – most (non-Ukrainian) refugees want to go to Germany, other European countries refuse to share the burden with Germany.
Anyone who wants to read a popularly written, but nevertheless scientific analysis of the dysfunctional European asylum law should read the book by the Berlin migration researcher Ruud Koopmanns, which is hot off the press. In “The Asylum Lottery”, Koopmanns describes why the right to asylum is in principle a good idea, but which achieves the opposite of what it aims for.
After all, only the strongest make it to Europe, not the neediest. Because most of the time, the first host countries are left in the lurch by the other Europeans. Because integration is much more difficult than assumed. Because Europe has made itself open to blackmail by autocrats like Turkish President Erdogan. Because right-wing populism benefits from the asylum system.
Constructive proposal for a fairer and more social refugee policy
Koopmanns describes why it is not the need for protection that decides whether to be accepted under the umbrella of asylum law in Europe, but the willingness to take risks. The old, the weak, the sick had no chance.
Koopmanns also makes a constructive suggestion for a different, fairer and more social refugee policy:
Asylum applications are not processed in Germany, but in camps outside the Schengen area. The United Nations, its refugee agency, selects those most in need of protection. Contracts are concluded with the countries of origin: They take back the illegal migrants – those without a right to asylum – and they are given quotas for regular immigration into the European labor market. Then it would become unregulated, regulated, controlled, immigration. Just as German industry would like it to be.
So far, German industry’s hopes of alleviating, if not solving, the shortage of skilled workers with the help of refugees from the Middle East have been dashed. And the assumption of the then Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche, who saw the flight of Syrians as a possible basis for a “second economic miracle”, turned out to be a euphoric illusion.
Federal government plans new immigration law
After the refugee immigration did not lead to a solution to the German shortage of skilled workers, the industry is now relying on targeted immigration from non-European countries. The federal government is planning a new immigration law. This week, two German ministers, Hubertus Heil and Nancy Faeser, sought inspiration in Canada, a country of immigration.
Allensbach says a majority of Germans are in favor of targeted, controlled immigration into the German labor market. So this looks like a win-win situation. There is one big but: So far, migrant workers, for example from Asia, prefer other countries to Germany by a wide margin.
Immigrating into Germany’s social system has so far seemed far more attractive to migrants than immigrating into Germany’s labor market. Roughly speaking: less qualified people come to Germany, qualified people prefer the USA, Canada or Australia.
