Germany's Red-Green coalition and opposition parties have not yet reached a unified opinion on key points of the new immigration law. Existing disagreements were not resolved at the third meeting of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
The Green Party adopted a resolution at its congress stating that it is ready to compromise with the opposition CDU/CSU, but only if the law does not lose its progressive character. 'We say yes to progress in relation to the current legal situation, we say no to maintaining the status quo or taking a step back,' - this is how the executive secretary of the parliamentary group of the Greens, Volker Beck, formulated the position of his party. The congress resolution also states that the Green Party does not want compromise at any price and will not vote for a law 'that does not have the character of a reform.' According to Volker Beck, the CDU/CSU are questioning the fundamental provisions of the new immigration law that meet modern requirements. These parties reject, in particular, the procedure for admitting immigrants to Germany based on a points system provided for in the law, thereby seeking to prevent the influx of foreigners into the country's labor market.
The provision on granting residence permits and work permits in Germany to qualified specialists is one of the main ones in the draft immigration law developed by the ruling Red-Green coalition. This part of the draft is based on the points system adopted in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Under this system, immigration services select foreign specialists within established quotas based on criteria such as age, qualifications, experience and work record, language skills, place of origin, and family status.
The Green Party also demands that the immigration law contain clear rules on granting refugee status to persons persecuted by non-state actors, discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, as provided for by the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
The Greens demand serious concessions from the CDU/CSU. According to Volker Beck, these parties refuse to adopt a new, modern immigration law for populist reasons. Therefore, the politician notes, it is not yet known whether negotiations in the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat will lead to the adoption of a 'reasonable law.' It is only clear that the Greens, as stated in the party congress resolution, refuse to engage in symbolic politics based on the principle: the 'immigration law' operation was successful, but the patient 'modern immigration policy' is dead.