CDU on migration and integration

The CDU wants to take in refugees beyond the mandatory quota under the Königsteiner Schlüssel only if housing, daycare and school places and integration services are available. Accommodation is to be planned for the long term and be mostly publicly owned. The program calls taking people in without adequate provision inhumane and costly.

Bremen must take in a fixed number of refugees. The CDU wants to take in more only if there is enough room. There must be housing, daycare places and school places. The shelters should belong to the state. Gyms should be used as shelters only in an emergency.

The CDU affirms its commitment to protecting refugees and sees integration as more than a roof over one's head. Capacity is to be planned so it can grow quickly when needed. Initial reception centers, transitional housing, a base stock of apartments and flexible shelters are to be state-owned, to avoid high yearly rents and makeshift solutions. Gyms or dormitories for students and trainees are to be used only as a last resort, with the regular users and the local advisory councils involved.

The CDU wants to consistently deport refugees it regards as unwilling to integrate or who have committed crimes. For well-integrated people who make an effort, it wants to create the conditions for the "Chancen-Aufenthalt" (opportunity residence permit). In the Bundesrat it will push for longer prior-residence periods before permanent residence is granted.

The CDU wants to deport refugees who commit crimes. The same goes for people who refuse to integrate. People who integrate well should be able to stay. But the CDU wants this: People must live here longer before they may stay for good.

Under the "Chancen-Aufenthalt," deportation can be suspended in individual cases or a prospect of staying opened up; the CDU says this honors the commitment shown by refugees and immigrants. The prior-residence period under the Chancen-Aufenthaltsgesetz is to go back up to more than three years. As its reason, the program says an asylum procedure takes 2.5 years on average, so the shorter period sends the wrong signal.

The CDU wants to make it easier to recognize foreign vocational qualifications and, through the Bundesrat, to recruit skilled workers in their home countries together with other states. Migrant self-organizations and neighborhood centers are to be strengthened in their integration work.

The CDU wants to bring in more skilled workers from abroad. Their job qualifications should be recognized more easily. There should be more language classes for them. Groups run by migrants should get money and rooms. Neighborhood centers should also get more help.

On recognizing qualifications, the CDU relies on cooperation with companies and chambers to find pragmatic case-by-case solutions and close gaps quickly. Language programs for foreign skilled workers, especially from other EU countries, are to be expanded. It wants to tap the potential of people with a migration background already living here through contacts with migrant self-organizations. These organizations, including those run by young people, are to get the same moral and financial support as other self-organizations, plus rooms to work in. Neighborhood centers are to expand their easily accessible services.

The CDU welcomes the high number of citizenship applications and wants to shorten processing times, which currently run up to two years. To that end, the migration office is to get more staff and space and work more digitally.

Many people in Bremen want to become German citizens. The CDU thinks that is good. But applications take up to two years. So the office should get more staff and more rooms. Many steps should also work online.

The program attributes the long waits to the many applications and to the lack of additional staff over the past seven years. Advisory services are to be expanded. For digitalization, the CDU mentions signature pads, payment options at the desk and applying the Onlinezugangsgesetz (Online Access Act) so that all administrative services are available online in the medium term. The office is to work in a network with other responsible bodies.