German Linda Wendt fights for a life with her husband Moro Diop. Without passing the language test, he is not allowed to move to her from Senegal. Not an isolated case.
In everyday life there are 4755 kilometers between Linda Wendt and Moro Diop (name changed), between Germany and Senegal. “Distance love is very hard. I miss my wife every second – morning, noon, evening,” says Moro Diop.
In 2020, Linda Wendt vacationed by the sea in Mbour in western Senegal, where Moro Diop lives. “We saw each other, we fell madly in love,” he says in a joint Zoom interview. They look at each other and smile.
Internship in Senegal, flights during the semester break – student Linda returns as often as she can. They want to get married and live together. That’s where the problems begin.
Marriage, no happy ending
Since 2007, the prerequisite for a visa for spouses to come to Germany is “simple language skills”, a German test at level A1: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Moro Diop speaks French and Wolof, has been working as a craftsman for years. At the beginning of 2022 he will stop working and move to the capital Dakar for the months of the German course at the Goethe-Institut.
Linda Wendt works alongside her studies, finances his courses, accommodation, learning materials, private lessons and WiFi connection. Both save on food. She lists all expenses just for learning German: It’s around 6,000 euros.
In Mbour they say yes in 2022, celebrate with their families and many guests. He wears a shoulder strap in the colors of the German flag, she wears one in the colors of the Senegalese. Happy end? No.
They share their everyday life via Messenger and video chats – “like behind a pane of glass,” says Moro Diop.
Extreme stressful situation
Moro Diop has been studying German vocabulary and grammar for 14 months. He is currently doing an online German course at the Goethe Institute. He also drives two days a week to see a private teacher at the University of Dakar: four times 90 kilometers by shared taxi, each journey takes two to three hours, and even longer when there are traffic jams. For weeks he studied two to three hours every evening with his wife in a video chat.
The exams are more demanding than the lessons, says the husband. He failed three times. 27, 37, 40 – he gets more points each time, but not the necessary 60. The German test is an extremely stressful situation for him, reports his wife.
High failure rate in language tests
The Goethe-Institut writes about the A1 test: “In the written test, you listen to short everyday conversations, private telephone messages or public loudspeaker announcements and work on related tasks. … They fill out simple forms and write a short personal text about an everyday situation.”
If you don’t live in Germany, you don’t know everyday life and it’s difficult to answer questions about it. Many fail. In 2021, three quarters of the participants in Senegal failed the A1 language test at the Goethe-Institut, the worst result among the 30 most important countries of origin. In 2022, more than 50 percent failed. Only in Ethiopia, Mexico and Ghana were there more this time.
Coalition agreement: language test after entry
“More than 10,000 spouses fail the required language tests abroad every year and therefore cannot meet their partners living in Germany.” The opposition Left Party uses figures from the government to justify a draft law in 2022 so that the language certificate can be provided after entry. The best place to learn German is in Germany.
In 2022, more than 12,000 participants, more than one in three from the 30 most important countries of origin, will fail the A1 exam. No language test, no visa. According to the German Foreign Office, 8,000 to 10,000 visa applications for spouses have been rejected or withdrawn in the past few years. Reasons are not recorded. Couples like Linda and Moro have not yet submitted an application because of the missing language test.
The Left Party’s bill fails. The coalition agreement of the ruling traffic light parties from the Social Democrats (SPD), Alliance 90/Greens and the liberal FDP states: “People who join their spouses can only provide the required language certificate immediately after their arrival.” The implementation should take place “promptly”. , the Federal Ministry of the Interior wrote to DW in early 2023.
In December, the traffic light decided to make things easier, but only for skilled workers. Your spouse can enter the country without a language test.
Gülistan Yüksel, member of the Bundestag, advocates family reunification in the SPD parliamentary group. In parliament, she says that the next legislative package will make it easier in principle to bring spouses: “For years I have received letters from people who have to live separately from their spouses because of the language certificate – sometimes for years. I don’t think anyone in this room wants to experience that for themselves.”
Binational families: “I cry every day”
Swenja Gerhard, lawyer and consultant at the Association of Binational Families and Partnerships, confirms the plight of many couples: “Some relationships and some people fail because of it.” In an appeal to numerous supporters, the association called for the language test before entry to be lifted. There are 174 visa offices worldwide. In 67 countries, however, there is no way to take the certified test.
Affected couples describe experiences with expensive, unsuccessful German courses and bureaucratic obstacles in the embassies. “Why are families so oppressed, I cry every day,” writes a man whose wife lives in Kuwait. A psychologist whose husband is denied entry from Egypt is now considering leaving Germany. A man from Cuba has to travel 900 kilometers to take the German exam.
No evidence of effectiveness against forced marriages
Linda Wendt described her situation to more than 20 members of the Bundestag from the traffic light parties: “Both my husband and I are under enormous mental stress because of this.” Several SPD and Greens MPs respond with regret and promise the change, first at the end of 2022, then at the beginning of 2023 .
“But nothing happened,” Wendt states soberly and wonders if it will ever happen again. A member of parliament recently wrote to her that the second migration package, in which family reunification is to be newly regulated, has been postponed to the second half of the year.
From the FDP, only Martin Gassner-Herz from the family committee answered. He points to the prevention of “forced marriages, sham marriages or arranged marriages” as the reason for introducing the language test. This is how the conservative CDU/CSU argued in 2007. The spouse from abroad should be able to communicate with the authorities and others independently of the partner in Germany
However, the Bundesrat, the representation of the federal states, already stated in 2015: Since no evidence could be found that the language certificate before entry serves to prevent forced marriages, “this regulation should be repealed”. Knowledge of German could be taught in Germany.
National discrimination: Germans disadvantaged
If Linda Wendt were Greek or Romanian, if she came from Brazil, El Salvador or Korea, she could get her husband to live with her without an A1 test. As a German, she does not have this privilege, nor do foreigners in Germany from non-privileged countries.
The following may enter without proof of language proficiency: the spouses of nationals from all EU states and other countries without a visa requirement. The same applies to the spouses of recognized refugees, researchers, the self-employed or highly qualified and, more recently, skilled workers – even if both spouses do not speak German.
The disadvantage of Germans is a “national discrimination”, says lawyer Swenja Gerhard. Because administrative law deals with individual cases, every couple has to fight again for family reunification.
“I’m angry with the state,” says Linda Wendt. “The institution of marriage is held up so highly in Germany and then you are denied living it.” Article 6 of the Basic Law, the German constitution, says: “Marriage and family are under the special protection of the state order.”
Germans cannot be referred to live abroad. “I never wanted to go to Europe,” says Moro Diop, but life in Senegal is difficult for his wife, “I have to move in with her.”
cases of hardship
In 2012, the judges of the Federal Administrative Court ruled that proof of language proficiency before entering the country should be avoided in the case of spouses joining Germans “if efforts to acquire the language are not possible in individual cases, unreasonable or not successful within a year”.
Reasons can be illness, disability or a lack of language learning opportunities. In 2015, a hardship rule for reunification with foreigners was enshrined in law.
Lawyer Gerhard reports that married couples are often unable to provide complete proof of such hardship cases in order to obtain a visa without prior proof of language proficiency. There are no statistics on this.
Living together in marriage: “My dream”
Moro Diob prepares intensively for the fourth language test. Even if he doesn’t pass, he wants to apply for a visa and refer to the hardship clause. At the same time, he applies for the federal voluntary service in Germany. In coordination with the immigration authorities in Germany, the visa office of the German embassy in Dakar will decide on the future of the couple.
They will keep fighting, says Linda Wendt. She wrote down her shared experiences in the book “Between Two Worlds” in order to make the topic better known and not to feel so helpless. The couple dream of a normal life, a family, children.
Both want to work, Moro Diob wants to support his wife. “Here in Senegal, we believe that if you’re married, you should live with your wife,” he says. “I would like to finally live with my wife. This is my dream.”
Author: Andrea Grunau, Anne Le Touzé
The original of this post “Germany keeps spouses away” comes from German wave.
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