Friedrich Merz is right, but his answers are the wrong ones

In front of train stations, in central squares or in parks – anyone who moves through larger cities in the evening or at night knows the crowds of people, the crowds that can sometimes hum happily, but can also suddenly turn aggressive. A stupid saying, a leg in the way, an outstretched shoulder. They are often young men who don’t look like the drunken village boys in the local films from the 1950s or like the “young boys” rockers à la Horst Buchholz. Probability alone speaks against this: In Germany today, more than one in three people between the ages of 15 and 25 has a migration background.

Gatherings of young men have always meant trouble. Those who suffered were and are often women, whether at the shooting festival, at the carnival and now in the city centers, especially in the sexual assaults at the Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve 2015. It is not surprising that there are many immigrants among the young men out and about today. They live in cramped conditions, have little money and a lot of time. In this respect, Friedrich Merz’s “cityscape” observation is not fundamentally wrong – and not only “daughters” can confirm that.

However, the Chancellor is completely wrong about the suggested solution. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) is “in the process of enabling and carrying out returns on a very large scale.” The number of deportations has actually increased – to 12,000 in the first half of the year. However, 225,000 people are required to leave the country, most of whom are tolerated. Deporting hundreds of thousands is completely unrealistic. The authorities neither have the capacity to do this nor is there a willingness to accept them in the countries of origin.

Clinging to the illusion of large-scale deportations is also fatal because it hinders integration and Germany needs workers. Not just IT experts, but also unskilled people as dishwashers in the catering industry, as helpers in care or as parcel drivers at Christmas.

Merz and Dobrindt may succeed in deterring migrants with border controls, but their largely empty threats of deportation certainly do not improve the “cityscape”. Especially since some of those with behavioral problems have a German passport because they were born here. The largest integration machine is still the world of work. Strangers become colleagues, the German language is practiced, and the wages can be used to rent an apartment or pay for a gym membership.

Politicians from the AfD, but also from the CDU/CSU, often claim that migrants are primarily attracted by German citizens’ money. The motivation to work is high: around two thirds of the refugees who came in 2015 now have a job. After eight or more years, 84 percent of the refugee men are employed. This means that they are even a little more hardworking than all men living in Germany.

But the path to the job market is rocky. Germany would rather initially finance the maintenance of asylum seekers than let them pay for themselves as quickly as possible. There is a ban on employment in the first three months after entry. Anyone who is accommodated in initial reception centers is only allowed to work after six months. As long as the asylum procedure continues or only a toleration permit has been granted, the work permit must be applied for at the immigration authority. And there is a general employment ban for refugees from so-called safe countries of origin.

If Friedrich Merz were to live out his desire to reduce bureaucracy here, he could quickly get tens of thousands of young men off the streets.