German Cabinet backs clampdown on family reunification for refugees

Yahoo

5 days ago

The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved restrictions on family reunification for certain groups of refugees and a tightening of citizenship laws.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's new government, which took office earlier this month, has promised a crackdown on migration and has already introduced tougher checks on the country's borders.
The two draft bills, proposed by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, must still be passed in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament.
The family restrictions target immigrants in Germany with so-called "subsidiary protection status," who are allowed to remain in the country due to the threat of political persecution in their homelands, despite lacking formal refugee status.
The bill, seen by dpa, says that almost 400,000 residents have subsidiary protection.
Around three-quarters are reportedly Syrian nationals, many of whom fled the country's devastating civil war.
The residents will no longer be allowed to bring their family members to Germany for an initial period of two years, restoring a policy which previously applied from 2016 to 2018.
Since then, a total of 12,000 family members of residents with subsidiary protection status have been able to move to Germany each year.
As a measure of comparison, 229,751 first-time asylum applications were filed in Germany last year, which indicates that the government's move targets only a small group of migrants.
Dobrindt has argued that the policy sends a signal that Germany's new government is changing course on migration, seeking to reduce "pull factors."
Unlike other proposals to clamp down further on the numbers of migrants settling in Germany, the measure is unlikely to face legal obstacles.
But critics argue that the move closes legal, safe pathways for refugees to enter Germany. "This is a catastrophe for affected families," said Tareq Alaows from refugee group Pro Asyl.
Migration expert Herbert Brücker said studies show that "separation from one's own family is psychologically very stressful for refugees, and thereby also hinders their integration."
Citizenship laws tightened
The second bill passed by Merz's Cabinet on Wednesday aims to row back on a reform introduced by the previous government to encourage residents to gain German citizenship faster.
The reform's main changes will not be reversed: most immigrants will still be able to apply for German nationality after five years of residence - down from eight years previously - and dual citizenship is still allowed.
However, a special path for "particularly well integrated" residents to become German nationals after just three years, termed "turbo-naturalization" by critics, is to be closed.
Brücker said the measure had been aimed at "top migrants, highly qualified and with a high income."
"The withdrawal of accelerated naturalization therefore has a negative impact on the very group of people we want to have in Germany," he argued.
However, the Expert Council on Integration and Migration has welcomed the move, arguing that it corrects the impression that access to German citizenship is too easy.