Refugee policy: every second found selection of refugees abroad better

Every second German would find a direct admission of those in need of protection from abroad better than the current procedure in which every asylum application is individually checked in Germany and other countries of the European Union. According to a representative YouGov survey on behalf of the German Press Agency, 15 percent of those entitled to vote would fully advocate such a radical change of course. 35 percent of the survey participants stated that they were more likely to support this.

Suggestion of BAMF President Sommer

According to YouGov, 29 percent of those surveyed do not believe in such a paradigm shift in asylum policy. 21 percent of the respondents did not dare to answer the question. This was literally: “The President of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has proposed to take on individual asylum tests, in the future only to take up refugees in need of protection, which are selected in advance abroad. According to everything they know how do they rate this proposal?”

In a speech at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at the end of March, BAMF President Hans-Eckhard Sommer spoke out “in remarkable amount” for the admission of people in Germany according to humanitarian criteria-as an alternative to individual asylum procedures. However, he had emphasized that this was his “personal assessment” and that he did not speak as a BAMF president. Politicians of the Greens, the Left and the Organization Pro Asylum then called for the resignation of the head of the authorities.

Only a few refugees are accepted from abroad

Germany had promised a total of 13,100 places for the UN refugee work and the EU Commission, which supported the so-called resettlement financially, for 2024 and 2025. So far, around 5,200 people have entered. This makes the number of recordings from abroad significantly lower than that of the asylum seekers. Last year, 229,751 people made an asylum application for the first time in Germany.

The CDU, CSU and SPD coalition agreement states: “In coordination with our European neighbors, we will also make rejections at the common limits in the event of asylum requests. We want to take all the rule of law to reduce the irregular migration.” How this affects in practice will soon be shown.

The reduction in state services for newcomers from Ukraine, which is also intended in the coalition agreement, is very well received. As the results of the survey show, more than three out of four Germans (77 percent) advocate that new refugees from Ukraine will soon no longer receive civil allowance, but instead the lower services for asylum seekers.

Eleven percent of the participants of the representative survey on behalf of the German Press Agency consider this decision of the new black and red coalition to be wrong. Twelve percent of the respondents did not dare to judge on this question.

Details still have to be spelled out

The coalition agreement literally states: “Refugees with a right of residence according to the mass influx directive, which have entered according to 01.04.2025, should again receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers Authority Act if they are in need.” The need must also be detected by consistent and nationwide uniform asset tests.

How the new regulation will be precisely designed is not yet known. Asylum seekers receive the lower services according to the Asylum Seekers Benefit Act for a maximum of 36 months, as long as no residence permit has yet been issued. If the residence status has been clarified, for example through recognition as a refugee, if someone is in need, there is entitlement to citizenship.

Ukraine refugees do not have to apply for asylum

For Ukrainian war refugees, however, the “Mass Admission Directive” has been in effect since 2022. This means that you receive a residence status without having to apply for asylum.

The refugees from Ukraine have been entitled to civil allowance in Germany since June 1, 2022, if they cannot make a living themselves. That should change soon. You should get the lower asylum seekers again. Those who have been in Germany for a long time do not affect this planned change.

The validity of the EU directive for the Ukraine refugees had been extended until March 2026. More than 1.25 million Ukrainian refugees currently live in Germany. Over 60 percent of people from Ukraine who have been looking for refuge in this country on February 24, 2022 since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.

How well is the integration?

Of the total of 2,275 adults with German citizenship, who took part in the YouGov survey between last Friday and Monday, almost every third (30 percent) stated that they had not yet met any refugees from Ukraine. 35 percent of Germans have the impression that the Ukrainians have integrated well. Every fourth (25 percent) is not of this view. The remaining respondents did not dare to judge here.

As far as war refugees from Syria are concerned, the proportion of Germans, who had no direct contact with them, is 31 percent similar to the Ukraine refugees. According to the survey, only 22 percent of Germans have the impression that the Syrian refugees had integrated well. 38 percent of adults do not agree.