What about those who live in Germany without residence papers, but after years speak the language and support themselves? The government is planning a new conditional stay option.
The incident took place in the summer of 2015, but the tears of the girl, 14-year-old Palestinian Reem Sawhil, have remained fresh in public memory to this day. At a citizens’ dialogue meeting with then-Chancellor Merkel, Rehm described in flawless German her family’s difficult situation after an odyssey that began in Lebanon and fears of deportation after years of “tolerance” in Germany. During the presentation, the little girl burst into tears, when the former chancellor said that from now on the deportations of similar cases will be done more quickly. All this in 2015.
One chance
Seven years later, Merkel has left politics, replaced by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, head of a three-party coalition intent on reversing many distortions in immigration policy. And first of all to give young people like Reem Sawhil a second chance and a long-term stay instead of deportation. To people who go through a humiliating process to get a few months’ tolerance status in constant fear that at some point the police will knock on their door to deport them. Even if they have remained in the country for many years, they speak German, they have found a job, they have somehow integrated. The draft law comes from the interior ministry of Nancy Feser from the SPD. According to this, people who reside more than five times in the country, starting from January 2022, have not provided false identity information and have a clean criminal record, will be able to get a one-year residence permit in principle.
During this time they will have to secure all the other conditions, such as language, work and identity, for a more permanent right of residence, limited in time to two years. In addition, those who do not use this possibility but meet certain conditions will be able to get a residence permit after six years instead of eight, as was the case until now. A basic condition is the recognition of the principles of the rule of law and the legal and social order of the country. The new arrangement affects around 135,000 people “and is a bridge to a better life in Germany, to more humanity instead of mistrust of the right to stay,” said Reem Alambali-Radovan, the German government’s integration commissioner. “With the right to stay we give prospects to people who are already members of our society, finally breaking the humiliating chain with the constant applications for tolerance status”.
What does the opposition say?
For the Christian Union, which from 2005 to 2021 held the interior ministry, the draft law goes too far, because it creates additional incentives for irregular immigration to Germany, as argued by Andreas Linkholz, the number two of the parliamentary group. “Because people in their home countries often know nothing about a deadline, they only realize that their relatives or acquaintances live permanently in Germany, some who are better informed may hope for another special arrangement in the future.” For the Left, the bill comes too late. “Since the beginning of the year people have been continuously deported, who according to the government agreement should have remained in the country, unbearable for those affected, untenable for the rule of law,” said Clara Binger. That is why her party will now bring another draft law to pass the new regulation before the summer recess in Parliament.
And at a time of labor shortages, especially the economy that has long pushed for realistic “train-not-deport” residency procedures, it welcomes the developments. So, the opportunity to stay for people who only have tolerance status is also a measure against the lack of labor force. After the holidays, the draft law will take the parliamentary route, a decision of the Parliament is expected by the end of the year. Two more immigration legislative packages will follow at the end of the year and early 2023, Minister Feser announced. Regarding Palestine, Reem Sawhil was invited to the chancellery in April 2016 for a private conversation with Merkel. Today she lives in an apartment building with her family outside Rostock and seems to have found her footing in another country, from where she was almost deported, For all this one can read her book “I have a dream” , about the life of a refugee girl in Germany.
Irini Anastasopoulou
Source: Deutsche Welle
Source: Capital
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