The text has already been submitted for review to the remaining members of the ruling cabinet; the interior minister seriously expects its approval within the first quarter and its adoption by the Bundestag and Bundesrat before the summer recess.
The project's stated goal sounds proud: to counter prostitution, forced marriages, and the illegal entry of foreigners into Germany. The mechanisms chosen to implement the plan are, however, quite original and, by some assessments, even unconstitutional. In particular, they contradict Article 6 of the German Basic Law on the protection of the family. Wolfgang Schäuble believes that to combat forced marriages, it is necessary to raise the age limit for applicants for family reunification to 21. 'Only in this way can the risk of young foreign women falling into slavery be reduced,' says the Interior Ministry's press service in response to a query from Spiegel magazine.
Perhaps the minister is somewhat right: the older the 'bride-to-be,' the harder it is for parents to lead her to the altar (or whatever it is – in mosques?) without consent. But the question is: is it really necessary to legitimize marital relations with minors who can easily be brought into Germany as children, grandchildren, etc.? And handed over to lustful old men or harem keepers, so to speak, for rent? 'Raising the marriage age limit can in no way stop the criminal trend of trafficking minors,' says Kenan Kolat, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, who believes that 'in the near future this idea will become the subject of numerous lawsuits.' A similar view is expressed by Bertold Sommer, a former member of the German Constitutional Court, who emphasizes that there is no difference between 'purely German and international marriages' – and they, marriages, 'must be protected by the state, not destroyed by it'!
That the Interior Ministry's plans conflict with the Constitution was stated by the leader of the Greens, Claudia Roth, the FDP's domestic policy expert Max Stadler, and the deputy head of the Left Party faction in the Bundestag, Petra Pau. In contrast, Schäuble's colleague in the conservative bloc, the parliamentary speaker of the CDU/CSU, Wolfgang Bosbach, warmly welcomed the Interior Ministry's initiative, clarifying that 'the government has no intention of legalizing a minimum marriage age,' but is only ready to 'fight against the criminal phenomenon of human trafficking,' and promised the minister full party support.
Let us continue down the list of Wolfgang Schäuble's obligations. Ban family reunification if the spouse 'from outside' does not have sufficient command of written German! His predecessor in the ministerial post, the Social Democrat Otto Schily, had intended to propose something similar (though it involved mastering 'elementary oral communication skills'), but did not get around to it, having been toppled. A rhetorical question: why is it more difficult from a linguistic standpoint to enter Germany than to obtain German citizenship? (According to a recent Constitutional Court ruling, to become a German it is enough to speak German, not necessarily to write it.) Schäuble's draft proposes to 'categorically refuse residence permits to those entering into sham marriages.' Naturally, all with the same noble aim – to counter the trade in live goods, that is, the sale of pseudo-wives to brothels. The document does not, however, specify the degree of risk of becoming prostitutes under coercion by foreign husbands. But it seems additional instructions from the Interior Ministry will not be long in coming.
This whole story, meant to attest to the current government's 'firm course' in combating illegal entry, is timed to coincide with the entry into force of general EU provisions on regulating migration processes. True, these provisions do not contain, for example, a word about Mr. Schäuble's idea of giving state agencies more powers in the area of deportation, according to which even employees of foreigners' affairs offices could make decisions on arresting suspicious individuals and swiftly expelling them from the country, and moreover without any court ruling. And the Dutch initiative of linking family reunification to the degree of language education has not even been tested yet, since it has been in effect for less than a year. So, if one reads the draft law to the end, one can fully agree with the liberal Stadler's assertion that Schäuble is using the EU program as a 'pretext for reshaping various areas of German life in the manner envisioned by the CDU/CSU.'
The only thing, perhaps, that is truly provided at the pan-European level is the creation of a biometric database on foreigners living in the country and those deported. 'On demand,' each of them will henceforth have to leave a photograph with the Interior Ministry, access to which via the Internet without special permission will be available to any legal and law enforcement structures. And here the German minister is ready to overfulfill the plan: he promises to store 30 million portraits in a single registry – one wonders where he intends to get such a number of foreigners?
In the opinion of “left-wing” Petra Pau, the Interior Ministry’s initiative means that “every foreign citizen automatically falls under suspicion as a potential criminal,” and is a kind of “presumption of guilt” for all those born outside Germany. The Greens intend to respond to the “anti-integration signal” by returning to the topic of granting foreigners living in Germany active and passive voting rights at the municipal level. The Free Democrats demand “debureaucratizing” the provisions on entry into the country for highly qualified specialists. That is, each of the major parties has already managed to make its mark in its failure to understand Wolfgang Schäuble’s innovation. But what about the CDU/CSU partners in the “grand coalition”? The Social Democrats, in principle, do not particularly object to the conservative minister. They just grumble quietly. “The bill will only become politically relevant after it has been coordinated with the SPD,” says the party’s domestic policy expert Dieter Wiefelspütz. “We in the CDU/CSU are united in goals, but not in instruments.” While conceding that raising the age limit for family reunification is “unreasonable,” he nevertheless takes a firm stance: “Forced marriages are no trifle! They are a serious crime, a violation of women’s rights,” and only clarifies that “in view of the significance of this problem,” the German Social Democrats “will not allow anyone to dictate a time frame to them.”
In other words, the main thing is not to rush. After all, today we are marking only the first anniversary of the “truly modern” Immigration Act. And we still remember how the SPD, which was at its origins, promised before signing the coalition agreement with the CDU/CSU to “develop progressive trends in migration policy.” However, it also promised not to raise VAT until it got involved with bad company. And as is known, in company even “reds” turn black.
Since the Immigration Management and Restriction Act came into force on January 1, 2005, the number of entries into Germany has sharply declined. Under the programs of the Federal Employment Agency, fewer than 1,000 people, according to preliminary counts, received the German Green Card – a residence permit for highly qualified specialists. For comparison: in 2004, 2,200 foreign experts and 3,800 managers came to boost the German economy.
The number of asylum seekers in 2005 fell to the level of 1983. A total of 28,914 applications were submitted (18.8% fewer than in 2004), of which only 0.9% were granted.
According to the Interior Ministry, the influx of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union declined particularly sharply: from 11,208 in 2004 to 5,968 in 2005.