Germany’s leftist coalition government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has announced it is looking to give residency to some 130,000 failed asylum seekers as part of an overhaul of the country’s immigration system.
The government is set to give a one-year residency to migrants who failed in their attempts to claim asylum in Germany but were given so-called tolerance status as the government determined that they were not able to return to their countries of origin.
The new overhaul of the immigration system will allow those who received tolerance status and have lived in Germany for at least five years to be able to claim permanent residency in Germany, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser commented on the new policy on Wednesday by saying: “We are a diverse immigration country. Now we want to become a better integration country.”
According to InfoMigrants, those who qualify for the new scheme must not be convicted of any “serious” crimes or used multiple or false identities. Some exceptions do exist for those convicted while they were supposedly minors.
Reem Alabali-Radovan, Germany’s integration commissioner, said of the new immigration policy: “We are reshaping Germany as a modern immigration country. A first important step: With the right of residence, there will finally be fair prospects for all those who have been living here on a tolerated basis for 5+ years. We are also opening up access to integration courses for everyone.”
The overhaul of the immigration system is a policy the leftist “traffic light” coalition of the Social Democrats (Reds), the Greens (Greens), and the Free Democrats (Yellows) have spoken out on before.
In November of last year, just prior to taking power, the coalition agreed to not only grant residency to those with tolerated status but to also expand family reunification — i.e. chain migration — to migrants with subsidiary protection, a lesser form of refugee status.
The coalition also promised to open so-called humanitarian corridors for asylum seekers from countries like Afghanistan.
Last month, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced a new agreement with Pakistan that would allow thousands of Afghans to come to Germany, and said that so far the government has brought 21,000 Afghan nationals to Germany.