Union faction leadership demands “Federal Agency for Immigration”

The head of the Union faction in the Bundestag wants to regulate the immigration of foreign skilled workers to Germany with its own federal agency for immigration. "In this way, skilled workers receive service from a single source: from job placement, checking the requirements for entry, to the necessary visa and the residence permit after arrival in Germany," says a position paper by the managing director available to the German Press Agency in Berlin Board of the Union faction.

Union faction leader Friedrich Merz told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” that the agency should actively recruit foreign specialists. Asylum procedures should in future be clearly separated from immigration procedures for skilled workers, emphasized the CDU chairman. The Union is committed to Germany's humanitarian responsibility for those seeking protection. "At the same time, we are proposing a bundle of national, European and international measures to control and limit irregular migration." Among other things, a crisis and coordination staff should be set up in the Chancellery.

Merz criticized the traffic light coalition for systematically mixing asylum and labor market policies. The federal government "obviously does not want to admit how dramatic the situation is in many municipalities in Germany". Because of the problems with the delivery of refugees, Merz invites around 700 mayors and district administrators to Berlin on March 30th. The invitation, which the “Bild” first reported on and which was also available to the dpa, says: “In 2022 alone, 244,000 asylum applications were made in Germany. The actual reception capacities are reaching their limits in many places.”

The position paper of the Union parliamentary group leadership states that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the local immigration authorities should in future concentrate on the group of asylum seekers. The Federal Agency for Immigration should take over all procedures that are currently being conducted at the diplomatic missions, the federal states and the districts and municipalities and are not asylum procedures. "It is also an employment agency for all workers from European and non-European countries."

Union faction Vice Andrea Lindholz (CSU) demanded that the immigration agency have to work with digital processes and the latest technology in order to be able to guarantee fast processes. She warned: "The currently disorderly and unchecked irregular migration endangers social support for Germany's humanitarian responsibility to help those seeking protection."

The traffic light coalition wants to fill the growing gap in skilled workers with many more workers from abroad. Unlike today, more non-EU citizens should be allowed to enter the country without a recognized qualification. Selection criteria should be professional experience or a connection to Germany. Probably the biggest change is to make it possible for “third-country nationals with good potential” to enter the country to look for a job. A chance card is to be awarded for this. For two weeks, non-EU citizens should be able to do a trial job while looking for a job.

There has been a Skilled Immigration Act since 2020. Skilled workers with foreign vocational training are given the right to stay in Germany for six months to look for a job.

According to the federal government, around two thirds of the deportations of rejected asylum seekers from Germany failed last year. A response from the federal government to a request from the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, from which the “Welt am Sonntag” quotes and which is also available to the dpa, shows that a total of 12,945 deportations were carried out in 2022. However, 23,337 deportation measures could not have been carried out. Reasons included canceled flights or the absence of the people concerned on the day of departure.

The domestic policy spokesman for the Union in the Bundestag, Alexander Throm (CDU), told the newspaper: "Germany is in the worst migration crisis since 2016. A successful repatriation policy must be a priority in the federal and state governments." The traffic light coalition has nothing of yours "Repatriation offensive" implemented. Throm he referred to the coalition agreement between the SPD, Greens and FDP. It says: “Not everyone who comes to us can stay. We are launching a repatriation offensive in order to implement departures more consistently, in particular the deportation of criminals and those who are at risk.”

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