The Standing Conference of Interior Ministers of the German federal states is working on the rules. The final draft will be submitted to the federal ministry for consideration and, if approved, will become law.
Under the old rules, 27,000 people who already hold a permit from one of the country's federal states will be able to obtain the right to move to Germany for permanent residence. This scheme no longer applies to new applicants. At the same time, another 27,000 Jews who have also filed applications with the state authorities have not yet received any documents, and it is not yet clear what rules will apply to them.
At the end of last year, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that one of the important criteria for obtaining a residence permit in Germany would be the level of knowledge of the German language and the applicant's chances of finding a job in the country. At the same time, Jews over the age of 45 will not automatically be deprived of the right to relocate to Germany.
Israel also agrees with the German government's plans. Natan Sharansky, Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Diaspora, said that Jews should not be granted refugee status, since there have been no anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe for a long time.
It should be recalled that since 1991, almost 200,000 Jews have emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Germany, while in 1989 only 30,000 representatives of this nation lived in Germany.
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