Publication Migration / Flight - Gesellschaft der Vielen Understanding Immigration

Germany needs humane, fact-based policies, not populist fearmongering

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Series

Policy Brief

Author

Gian Mecheril,

Published

January 2025

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Residents of a refugee camp north of Athens, Greece, 30 October 2024.
Residents of a refugee camp north of Athens, Greece, 30 October 2024. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd von Jutrczenka

There is a yawning gap between the immigration debate in Germany and the actual challenges immigration poses. Triggered by events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU’s ongoing immigration policy crisis, and the rise of anti-immigration parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), debates increasingly focus on tackling so-called “irregular migration”, and are dominated by security and financial arguments. This can be seen in the immigration policy measures proposed by the German government, as well as in the EU’s reform of the European asylum system (CEAS). This policy brief calls for a paradigm shift in immigration policy that encompasses investment in social infrastructure, better integration of refugees, and a re‑evaluation of the relationship between migration and security.

Gian Mecheril studied political science, sociology, and conducted interdisciplinary research on antisemitism in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. His academic and activist work focuses on border and immigration regimes, racism, and antisemitism.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine causing the single greatest movement of refugees within Europe since World War II, the ongoing crisis of European immigration policy and conflicts over how it should be reformed, the massive electoral gains of the AfD, and finally the Islamist-motivated knife attack in Solingen, debates around the direction of German asylum and immigration policy have grown considerably more heated. The central focus of immigration debates as well as of various hastily adopted legislative measures is not so much immigration itself, but rather tackling so-called “irregular migration”. One of the fundamental lessons drawn from the Nazi era, namely the importance of an individual right to asylum, is increasingly being forgotten. The act of taking in people seeking protection is at risk of degenerating into a purely humanitarian gesture, should Germany be able to afford it both financially and in terms of security.

In light of Germany’s ageing population, industry bodies and economic research assume a high level of immigration is needed in order to at least be able to keep the current degree of labour force potential at a relatively stable level. In response to such prognoses, the federal government has implemented a range of measures as part of what it calls its skilled labour strategy, including more immigration treaties with safe home countries in order to be able to recruit workers from these countries, while also being able to deport more asylum seekers there when their applications have been refused.

It is here that a contradiction in German immigration policy reveals itself: on the one hand, it is clear that current measures are aimed at encouraging immigration in order to secure workforce potential and the need for skilled labour. On the other hand, current immigration policy measures constitute an attempt to hinder forced migration, and the discourses that accompany them encourage social divisions and racist ideas about all issues pertaining to immigration.

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