AfD on migration and integration

Through the Bundesrat, the AfD wants foreign offenders to be expelled automatically whenever they are sentenced to prison, even if the sentence is suspended. It cites high reoffending rates as the reason.

Foreigners sentenced to prison should have to leave the country. This should apply even with a suspended sentence. Today this rule starts at three years in prison. The AfD wants to change the law through the Bundesrat.

Expulsion is to become a mandatory consequence of any prison sentence as a rule. Whether the sentence is suspended on probation should not matter. The program notes that mandatory expulsion currently applies only from a sentence of three years. Officers carrying out deportations are to receive full political backing.

The AfD wants Hamburg to deport all foreigners who are legally required to leave. Measures include multiplying detention places, monitoring those due for deportation with ankle tags, and ending integration offers for people staying only temporarily.

Some foreigners must leave Germany. The AfD wants Hamburg to deport all of them. There should be many more places in deportation detention. Some people should wear an electronic ankle tag. Then they cannot go into hiding.

The program cites about 400 successful and 300 failed deportations in 2023 and nearly 10,000 people obliged to leave. All asylum seekers are to be fingerprinted, and those claiming to be minors must undergo age checks. The 19 deportation detention places are to be multiplied, detention allowed in regular prisons, and adults obliged to leave routinely fitted with electronic ankle monitors. Data is to be exchanged automatically with domestic, foreign and EU authorities, funding for deportation monitoring ended, and migration background and multiple citizenship recorded in official statistics. Deportations are to be eased via consulates and embassies, and integration offers for temporary residents replaced by preparation for return.

The AfD sees asylum as temporary protection that ends with return. It will not fund integration efforts for asylum seekers and rejects the "Spurwechsel" (switching from asylum to a work-based residence status).

For the AfD, asylum is only protection for a while. When the danger is over, people should go back. So the AfD does not want to pay for their integration. Asylum seekers should not be able to become work migrants.

Asylum and immigration are to be kept strictly separate. Once the reasons for flight no longer apply, the foreigner is to leave the country. Exceptions are possible in cases of disproportionate hardship. The AfD views status switching as retroactive legalization of past asylum policy; in its view, illegal border crossing must not lead to legal residence.

Through the Bundesrat, the AfD wants a much more restrictive immigration system. Asylum migration would follow an Australian-style model, and skilled immigration a points system.

The AfD wants much stricter rules for immigration. For refugees, Germany should act like Australia. Skilled workers should be chosen with a points system. Borders should be strictly protected.

The points system is to take cultural and economic conditions into account. In the program's view, Germany's capacity to take in people has been exhausted for decades since 2015. Legal immigration should benefit the receiving community, and illegal migration is to be prevented in all cases. This includes rigorous protection of German and European borders and a campaign against illegal migration.

The AfD wants benefits for protection seekers provided exclusively in kind. It considers the payment card a first but insufficient step against what it sees as economically motivated asylum abuse.

Refugees should not get money anymore. They should only get things, like food and a bed. The payment card is not enough for the AfD. It wants to stop people from coming only for money.

According to the program, protection seekers are entitled to food, shelter, medical care and safety. The AfD does not see an equal claim to social benefits. Authorities are to be instructed to provide only in-kind benefits, with legal changes if necessary.

The AfD wants asylum seekers housed centrally following Denmark's example. In its view, this allows better control and creates incentives for voluntary departure.

Asylum seekers should live in one central place. The model is Denmark. The AfD says this gives more control. More people would then leave on their own. Some shelters in Hamburg should close.

The program points to Denmark, which it says has housed mainly illegal migrants on the island of Lindholm. In the AfD's view this protects both citizens and protection seekers and encourages voluntary departure. Particularly problematic shelters, such as the one on Überseering in City Nord, are to be closed.

The AfD wants a substantial change to the Königsteiner Schlüssel, the formula that distributes asylum seekers among the German states, so that it reflects Hamburg's particular situation. In the program's view, this is meant to preserve the city's German and Central European cultural character.

Asylum seekers are shared out among the German states. A formula decides how many each state gets. The AfD wants to change this formula. Hamburg should get a better deal. The AfD says this protects the city's culture.

The demand comes alongside the AfD's general goal of reducing migration to Germany. The distribution formula is to account for the specific situation of the city-state of Hamburg. The program justifies this by pointing to the preservation of Hamburg's German and Central European cultural character.

The AfD wants to stop private sea rescue ships, which it calls smuggler ships, from entering or leaving the Port of Hamburg. Hamburg authorities are to be empowered to seize them. In the program's view, these ships drive illegal migration and put people's lives at risk.

Private ships rescue people in the Mediterranean. The AfD calls them smuggler ships. These ships should not use Hamburg's port. Officials should be allowed to seize them. The groups behind them should lose their benefits.

The program cites the "Sea-Watch 2" as an example of a ship that departed from Hamburg. Such vessels are to be barred from entering or leaving the port, and the AfD wants to create a legal basis for seizing them. The associations behind them are to lose their charitable status, and a ban on these associations is to be examined. The AfD argues that the ships fuel migration to Europe and enter the territory of other states such as Italy.