As reported by Deutsche Welle, the new immigration law, which was supposed to open the door to Germany for people the country needs, appears to be hopelessly stuck in the corridors of the German parliament. Conservative guardians of the “national grail” managed to get the already adopted document annulled through the Constitutional Court. The law was returned to the mediation committee of the Bundestag and the chamber of federal states, where Christian Democrats predominate. The committee's latest meeting was held the other day, and it became clear that the law can effectively be written off.
As for the points system used in many countries around the world, under which suitable foreigners could legally come to Germany and stay, conservatives believe this would lead to a flood of citizens from other countries into the Federal Republic, and there are already more than enough of them here. However, data from the latest migration report by the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration of Foreigners, Marieluise Beck, suggest the opposite: “There is absolutely no reason for panicked discussions about immigration to Germany. After all, data on inflow must be set against data on outflows from the country. And if you compare these figures, it turns out that there is no cause for concern.”
Indeed, in 2002 (data for last year will only arrive in the summer), just 840,000 people from other countries came to Germany. Moreover, a quarter of them were Germans returning from travels abroad, as well as ethnic German resettlers from the republics of the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. Thus, the overall level of migration to Germany has nearly halved over the past ten years. And this is without taking emigration into account. In 2002, more than 620,000 people left the country, including half a million foreigners residing in Germany. The result is a positive balance of just over two hundred thousand, of which again about a quarter are Germans themselves moving from country to country. This is three times less than ten years ago.
Not only the overall volume of immigration to Germany has decreased, but also its composition. In particular, a significant number of people - over three hundred thousand per year - are typical seasonal workers. They have no intention of settling in Germany. They come for seasonal work - helping to harvest strawberries, asparagus, or grapes - and then leave for home. Under the law, they can legally stay and work in Germany for only three months, but they still end up in immigration statistics.
Over the past ten years, the number of people seeking political asylum in Germany has also sharply declined. The peak influx of refugees to the Federal Republic occurred in 1992, when the Balkans were ablaze and the Soviet Union collapsed. At that time, almost half a million people asked the German authorities for asylum. Now only about seventy thousand applications are received per year. The flow of German resettlers from the CIS republics has also decreased by more than four times, although their Russian-speaking family members now constitute a noticeable share of the overall influx of migrants to the Federal Republic.
Meanwhile, Germany urgently needs an influx of foreigners. And not only because without immigrants the country would age very quickly. Marieluise Beck: “Immigration brings innovation to the country. After all, as a rule, a wanderlust drives curious, brave, and enterprising people. All migration studies testify to this. A society cannot stew in its own juice; immigration only benefits it. Historical experience proves that despite all the conflicts and difficulties that arise, fresh blood always leads to a leap in development and growth in prosperity. So we need to open the country; openness is an integral part of modern society.”
The only exception to the general trend of decline in the flow of migrants to the Federal Republic is the increase in the number of foreign students at German universities. Over ten years, it has doubled. Marieluise Beck counted this fact among the encouraging ones.