2024-03-09 20:59:05
The federal and state governments have discussed migration policy, but are still divided as before. “The government urgently needs to show that it is controlling the situation,” says asylum law expert Daniel Thym.
Asylum law expert Daniel Thym draws a sobering conclusion on German migration policy after the country leaders met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). “The decision is just an indication of the problem, there is no new idea,” says the lawyer in an interview with t-online. He predicts: “The heated debate will continue.”
Under the pressure of persistently high numbers of asylum seekers, the Prime Ministers met for a meeting to discuss migration policy. The essence of the matter was that Union politicians in particular called for faster implementation of the November decisions. At that time, the federal and state governments agreed on measures to limit irregular migration. The federal government has already implemented some of the points, while others are still being worked on. Here you can read more about it.
“This is a perfect signal to the population”
Thym sees politics in a mess. “The government urgently needs to show that it is controlling the situation.” But such solutions are difficult to find in migration policy. “There is the idea that migration management works like a faucet: If you turn it off, water stops flowing.” But it’s not that simple; many solutions only work in the long term. Thym cites the European Asylum Reform (CEAS) as an example. If it is passed soon, it will not come into force until 2026.
In the current debate in Germany, Thym sees three points in particular that could send such a “control signal”. On the one hand, the controls at the borders with Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, which Interior Minister Nancy Faeser last extended in December. “This is a perfect signal to the population: We are doing something.” They have also had an impact; the number of irregular entries has recently fallen.
Daniel Thyme is a lawyer at the Chair of Public Law, European Law and International Law at the University of Konstanz. He researches German, European and international migration law as well as European constitutional law.
The second point is the payment card. “She too could have shown the population that something was happening.” But hardly any details are known yet; the federal and state governments have been arguing about it for weeks. And this dispute will continue, says Thym. “That’s not exactly how you do it.”
A third point is the asylum procedures in third countries, says Thym. Since last summer, there has been a controversial debate in Germany about whether the protection status of asylum seekers can also take place outside of Europe. The federal government is currently examining this and is consulting experts, including Thym. The states have now asked the government to present results by June 20th.
“The population will not be satisfied with this”
Thym supports such an attempt, but also says: “It’s not something that will solve all problems overnight.” First, German politicians must agree on a viable path, then third countries must be found in which this can be carried out. In addition, it is not certain that the numbers will decline quickly. “There is a risk that you will get lost in a long debate again or that it will not have any effect in the end,” says Thym. If the centrist parties promise but then fail to deliver, it does not send a positive signal. “This will not satisfy the population.”
But the responsibility does not lie solely with the federal government. For example, in addition to accelerated asylum procedures, faster deportations could actually create an improvement. “But this hasn’t been addressed for years,” says Thym. The immigration authorities are often too thinly positioned and the proceedings in the courts often take well over three years. “The countries urgently need to do their homework here,” said Thym.
On Wednesday afternoon, Scholz presented the results of the Prime Minister’s Conference on migration policy together with Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) and Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD). While Rhein appeared satisfied with the result at the press conference, there was subsequently a hail of criticism from the Union-led countries. “Migration policy requires speed rather than time,” criticized North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst. You can read more reactions to the federal-state summit here.