CDU/CSU on migration and integration

The CDU and the CSU want to create a digital federal immigration agency that handles foreign skilled workers from recruitment through to the residence permit. Foreign vocational qualifications are to be recognized more simply and quickly. Asylum procedures are to be separated from immigration into the labor market.

The CDU and the CSU want to attract skilled workers from abroad. A new digital agency should do this. It takes care of everything: job, visa and residence. Qualifications from abroad should be recognized faster.

The "Work-and-Stay Agency" is to bundle all steps: recruitment, job placement, checking entry requirements, the visa and the residence permit. Procedures are to be faster and digital. The platform stresses good qualifications as a condition for lasting employment. Germany is to become an attractive location for skilled workers from abroad. Procedures for asylum and for labor immigration are to be kept apart.

The CDU and the CSU want to turn back people at Germany's borders who arrive from another EU or Schengen country and want to apply for asylum. Border checks would continue for as long as the parties consider necessary. The stated goal is to stop irregular migration.

The CDU and the CSU want to keep checking Germany's borders. People who come from another EU country and want asylum may not enter. Police will send these people back. The parties want to take in fewer people this way.

The platform speaks of a de facto halt to admissions that would take effect immediately. Everyone arriving via another EU or Schengen member state who wants to file an asylum claim in Germany would be turned back. Border checks would be extended. The parties also want to invest in border security technology such as drones and night-vision and thermal cameras. Foreign, European, and development policy would likewise be geared toward the goal of a shift in migration policy.

The CDU and the CSU want to suspend family reunification for people with subsidiary protection and end all voluntary admission programs. At the EU level, they want subsidiary protection status to be abolished.

Some refugees have a limited form of protection. It is called subsidiary protection. They should no longer be allowed to bring their families. Germany should also stop taking in people voluntarily. The CDU and the CSU want to abolish this protection across Europe.

People with subsidiary protection are not recognized as refugees but face serious harm in their home country. Their relatives would no longer be allowed to join them for the time being. All voluntary admission programs would end. In the EU, the parties want to work toward abolishing this protection status and speak of returning to the original meaning of the Geneva Refugee Convention. Humanitarian admissions overall would fall to a level that, in the platform's view, does not overburden Germany.

The CDU and the CSU want to prioritize in-kind benefits over cash and introduce the payment card in every state. People required to leave the country would get only a minimum or no benefits at all. Newly arriving refugees from Ukraine would no longer receive Bürgergeld (citizen's income).

Asylum seekers should get less cash. Instead they get goods and a payment card. People who must leave Germany should get only the bare minimum. New refugees from Ukraine should no longer get Bürgergeld, a basic welfare payment. They should find work quickly.

In-kind benefits would generally take priority over cash, and the payment card would apply everywhere under strict rules. For people required to leave, benefits would follow the principle of "bed, bread, and soap"; where possible, they would be cut entirely. Newly arriving Ukrainians would receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act instead of Bürgergeld. At the same time, the parties want to get them into work quickly by making it easier to recognize professional qualifications and by having them learn German on the job.

The CDU and the CSU want to raise the number of deportations through a dedicated law and deport people to Afghanistan and Syria on a regular basis. Offenders and people deemed a security threat who are required to leave could be held in open-ended pre-departure detention after serving their sentence. More countries would be classified as safe countries of origin.

People with no right to protection must leave Germany. The CDU and the CSU want to deport more people. This should also include Afghanistan and Syria. Criminals should stay locked up after prison until they leave. The federal police should get more powers for this.

Federal departure centers and centralized, accelerated asylum procedures are planned. The federal government would give the states more help with travel documents and deportations. The federal police would be allowed to place people required to leave in temporary detention or pre-departure custody. Offenders and people deemed a security threat who must leave could be held with no time limit after serving their sentence until they leave or are deported. The parties want to designate more safe countries of origin and sign more readmission agreements with the main countries of origin. In the EU, they call for stricter rules and more returns carried out by Frontex.

The CDU and the CSU want to launch an EU asylum reform: anyone who applies for asylum in Europe would be transferred to a safe country outside the EU and have their case processed there. After that, the parties want to admit a limited number of people in need of protection each year directly from abroad.

The CDU and the CSU want to change asylum law in Europe. Asylum cases should be handled in safe countries outside Europe. People who are accepted should get protection there. Germany should then take in a fixed number of people each year.

Under the program, the third country itself would grant protection on site if the application succeeds. The parties argue that the journey to Europe would then no longer pay off and smugglers would lose their business. Once this model is in place, a yearly quota of especially vulnerable people would be brought directly to Germany from abroad. Humanitarian admission and the immigration of skilled workers are to be kept clearly separate. In the program's view, the dangers of the route currently decide who reaches Europe.

The CDU and the CSU want much stronger protection of the EU's external borders, including physical barriers and technology. The border agency Frontex is to get more staff and sovereign powers of its own. In the long run this is meant to make checks at borders inside the EU unnecessary.

The CDU and the CSU want to protect the EU's outer borders better. This includes fences and technology. Frontex is the EU's border agency. It should get more staff and more powers. Checks between EU countries should end later.

According to the program, smugglers should no longer determine who enters the EU. The parties press for greater use of physical and technical border protection. Frontex is to become a border police and coast guard and gradually take over its own border sections on its own responsibility. The goal is joint European protection of the external borders.

The CDU and the CSU want to define and enforce a Leitkultur (guiding culture) and demand integration more firmly than before. Recognized refugees are to receive mandatory integration agreements. The platform argues that a diverse society needs binding rules.

The CDU and the CSU want a guiding culture for Germany. That means shared values that apply to everyone. Immigrants should commit to these values. Recognized refugees should get fixed agreements on integration. There should be many German classes.

People who come to Germany are expected to commit to freedom, equal rights, democracy and the rule of law, as well as to Israel and its right to exist, and to reject antisemitism. The integration agreements set milestones, and progress toward them is checked. For recognized refugees without work, a nonprofit integration service is to be created to bring them closer to the labor market. A broad range of German and integration courses is meant to enable success in education and work.

The CDU and the CSU want to abolish naturalization after three years of residence and the general option of dual citizenship. In their view, citizenship comes at the end of successful integration.

Today some people can become German after only three years. The CDU and the CSU want to end that. Holding two passports should no longer be generally allowed. People who want to become German must speak German well and have work.

The parties want to roll back both rules introduced by the previous three-party "Ampel" coalition. They name good German skills, lasting integration into the labor market and a clean criminal record as indispensable conditions for naturalization. In the platform's view, integration is not something that can be completed quickly.