AfD on migration and integration

The AfD frames its migration policy as "integration or remigration." Foreigners without a right to stay would have to leave if they are criminal, extremist or dangerous, rely on welfare, or no longer have grounds for protection. German citizens, including naturalized ones, are explicitly excluded.

The AfD wants certain foreigners to leave Germany. It calls this remigration. It is about foreigners with no right to stay, for example offenders. People with a German passport are not affected.

The program names deportations and voluntary return programs as the tools. It singles out Syrians, because the AfD considers the civil war there to be over. Naturalized people count as Germans and are excluded from such measures. The party also says it represents well-integrated people with a migration background and sees immigration as a gain when it is controlled and benefits the local population.

The AfD wants to tie German citizenship to strict conditions. It should come only at the end of a successful integration process, which the program says usually takes at least ten years. Integration courses and tests would become more binding and affect welfare benefits and the right to stay.

The AfD wants to make it harder to get a German passport. People should speak German well and live from their own work. They must not have committed crimes. People who fail integration courses should face disadvantages.

The conditions for a passport would be a long waiting period, linguistic and cultural integration, supporting oneself and one's family without state aid, and a clean criminal record. The party argues that citizenship carries all rights and duties and that naturalized people are exempt from remigration. The program treats integration and language learning as a duty of immigrants. Results of courses and tests would affect benefits and residence status. The AfD sees further integration measures as useful only for people with a longer-term prospect of staying.

The AfD wants to keep the existing border checks, which it says have proven effective against smugglers and unauthorized entry. In addition, unauthorized entry via airports is to be stopped.

The AfD wants to keep checks at the borders. It says the checks have worked well. Nobody should be able to enter without permission at airports either.

The program points to hundreds of arrests and refusals of entry in 2025 and counts this as a success. The AfD sees airports as a gap because asylum seekers can fly to Germany unchecked within the Schengen area. Checks would therefore be extended there. The party justifies this with national security and the shift in migration policy it calls for.

The AfD wants to deport large numbers of people who are required to leave and to centralize the procedures at state level. Hahn airport would become the central deportation airport with its own return center. Priority would go to deporting foreigners who have committed crimes or are classed as dangerous.

The AfD wants to deport many more people. The state should organize deportations centrally. A deportation center is to be built at Hahn airport. Offenders and dangerous people should go first.

According to the program, more than 8,200 foreigners required to leave live in Rhineland-Palatinate without a regular residence permit. The return procedure would be pooled at state level and simplified. More places in pre-deportation detention are meant to keep people from going into hiding, and voluntary departures would be supported. For offenders and people deemed a threat, especially violent offenders, Islamists and antisemites, the AfD wants to use every legal means of expulsion and help municipalities do so. The party links this to costs, housing shortages and crime that it attributes to asylum migration.

The AfD wants to dissolve the state's hardship commission without replacement and carry out deportations even from church asylum. It rejects on principle the discretionary toleration permits (Duldung) granted by immigration offices. In its view, asylum decisions should not be bypassed by state bodies or churches.

The AfD wants to abolish the hardship commission. This body can let rejected asylum seekers stay. People should also be deported from church asylum. Offices should only grant toleration permits for compelling reasons.

As the program describes it, the hardship commission can overturn a negative asylum decision even after it has become final. The AfD considers the body one-sidedly staffed and wants to scrap it. Lawful deportations would be enforced even against church asylum. The administrative rule on discretionary toleration would be changed so that such permits are issued only for compelling reasons. The party wants rejected asylum seekers deported rather than tolerated.

The AfD wants to immediately stop all state programs for admission, for so-called "lane changes," and for integration. Only the voluntary departure program would remain. The party argues that society's capacity to take people in has been exceeded.

The AfD wants to stop all programs for taking in refugees right away. Integration programs should end too. Only help for leaving voluntarily should stay. The party says the state cannot take in more people.

The program states that the number of asylum migrants and refugees in Rhineland-Palatinate has risen from 20,000 in 2010 to more than 146,000. It lists high costs, more crime, falling school standards and scarce housing as consequences. By ending the programs, the AfD wants to relieve welfare and education systems, public budgets, the housing market and municipalities. A "lane change" (Spurwechsel) means rejected asylum seekers switching to a residence status for work or training.

The AfD wants to keep rejected asylum seekers in state reception facilities for as long as the law allows before distributing them to towns and cities. Overburdened municipalities would not have to take in more asylum seekers. The state would reimburse municipalities for all asylum costs.

The AfD wants to ease the burden on towns and cities. Rejected asylum seekers should only move to towns after 24 months. Overloaded towns should not have to take anyone in. The state should pay all asylum costs.

According to the program, rejected asylum seekers are now usually moved from reception facilities (AfA) to municipalities well before the 24-month maximum. The AfD wants to end that. Municipalities that file a justified overload notice would not be forced to accept more people. All municipal asylum costs would be recorded statistically for the first time, including administrative and investment costs, and fully covered by the state. The program cites direct state spending of more than 380 million euros in 2022 and expects municipalities could lower property and trade taxes after full reimbursement.

The AfD wants asylum seekers in initial reception to receive, as a rule, only benefits in kind. Payment cards would be capped at 50 euros a month, and asylum seekers would be assigned to community work. The party wants to reduce financial incentives for migration.

The AfD wants to stop giving money to asylum seekers. They should get food, clothing and hygiene items. The payment card should hold at most 50 euros a month. Asylum seekers should also do community work.

The program notes that the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act allows personal needs to be met through benefits in kind. Under the slogan "bed, bread, soap," food, clothing and hygiene products would be provided. Abuse through money transfers is to be prevented. The AfD wants to apply the existing legal option of requiring asylum seekers to do community work. In the party's view, people who truly seek protection do not need cash payments.

The AfD supports immigration of qualified workers where there is demand that cannot be met by local workers. Foreign vocational qualifications would be recognized with little red tape but without lower standards. The party also wants to encourage Germans who have emigrated to return.

The AfD supports skilled workers coming in when companies need them. Foreign job qualifications should be recognized more easily. But they must be as good as German ones. Germans living abroad should find it easier to come back.

The program separates regulated skilled immigration from asylum migration and calls the state's current skilled-worker strategy impractical and unsuccessful. Rhineland-Palatinate is to become more attractive to top international workers and their families through lower charges, better education and more security. The program cites about 300,000 Germans who emigrated in 2023. Qualified returnees would get a support service like the one planned for foreign skilled workers. Better living conditions are also meant to keep people from emigrating.