About 200,000 people live in Germany with Duldung status. Over each of them hangs the sword of Damocles of deportation to their homeland, which is expected almost daily. Moreover, more than half of these people have been in the Federal Republic for about ten years (since the beginning of the Balkan war), and many have children born here who know no other country besides Germany.
Naturally, this situation cannot continue forever. The interior ministers of the various federal states have repeatedly tried to find a solution to this difficult issue, even under the "red-green" government coalition. Great hopes were placed on the new immigration law that came into force on January 1, 2005. However, the legislator has not been able to resolve this problem.
Now both representatives of the states and members of the ruling cabinet are trying to find a compromise. It is noteworthy that the Interior Minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, became the first high-ranking politician among the Christian Democrats to speak in favor of granting permanent residence to refugees and asylum seekers who have long been in the country. "We must, after all, settle this still unresolved and overly emotional issue," emphasized Bouffier, presenting his proposals on this topic.
According to the politician, the Duldung status should be replaced by a "normal" residence permit under certain conditions. Long-term residence in Germany, sufficient knowledge of the German language, many years of gainful employment and payments to social insurance funds, self-financing of one's livelihood, birth of children on German territory, no criminal record. If these prerequisites coincide, the right to reside in Germany should also be granted, in the minister's opinion, to those who today are obliged to leave the Federal Republic. According to the Hesse politician, these legislative proposals will directly affect about 15% of the 15,000 refugees living in his state.
True, most of them receive state financial support, since asylum seekers often do not have work permits. In this regard, Bouffier intends to expand his proposals. In particular, he believes that those persons who meet the criteria he has developed, with the exception of employment, may receive a limited work permit, as well as a special period of time during which they can find such work. "If they can do it, they will get permanent residence," Bouffier believes. At the same time, the minister intends to act harshly against those refugees who do not fulfill the proposed conditions. "We cannot abuse the willingness of our population to accept new refugees," emphasizes the Christian Democrat.
The ideas of the Hesse politician are largely similar to the proposals being developed by the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, liberal Ingo Wolf. He believes that a residence permit should be issued to those who have lived in Germany for at least six years, have not had problems with the law, have been working for more than two years, and are socially integrated. Wolf speaks of "several thousand" asylum seekers who could take advantage of this new right in North Rhine-Westphalia. In total, about 65,000 refugees live in this state.
Official Berlin has already signaled its readiness to meet the proposals of some state politicians. However, in Angela Merkel's government, they must also take into account the opposite opinion. This is where the rub lies: the interior ministers from Lower Saxony and Bavaria came out against it. In particular, the Bavarian politician Günther Beckstein fears that the new rules will sharply worsen the chances on the labor market for low-skilled German unemployed. He is supported by the politician from Hanover, Uwe Schünemann, who in a special message to Wolfgang Schäuble warned the federal center that some steps being developed today to make life easier for refugees "lead in a completely wrong direction".
As a result of the heated discussion in Karlsruhe, a "half-hearted decision" was made. At the level of state interior ministers, a working group will be created in 2006 to develop a certain compromise on this issue. It is noteworthy that this group will be headed by none other than Günther Beckstein.