CDU on migration and integration

The CDU wants to attract skilled workers from abroad to Saxony and use recruitment centers in selected countries to do so. Small and mid-sized companies should find it easier to make use of this immigration, for example through temporary agency work. The party sees this as a response to the demand for workers.

Saxony lacks skilled workers. So the CDU wants to bring well-trained people from other countries. There should be offices in some countries for this. Small companies should get help with it. People who studied in Saxony should also stay.

The recruitment centers are to be coordinated centrally in Saxony; the state's business development agency and companies' contacts abroad are also to be used. For smaller businesses, the CDU wants to allow temporary agency work and other support and to push for this at the federal level. Housing, transport links and career options for partners are meant to make Saxony more appealing to foreign professionals. Graduates of Saxon universities are to be approached early so that they stay in the state. The party also wants to activate untapped potential within Germany.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for a flexible cap on asylum seekers, set at no more than 60,000 people in the coming years. It argues that housing, schools and German courses are reaching their limits. Family reunification would also be restricted to the nuclear family.

The CDU wants fewer refugees in Germany. At most 60,000 asylum seekers should come each year. Only the closest family should be allowed to follow. The CDU says there are not enough homes, school places and German classes.

The cap is described as a "breathing lid" and would be adopted at the federal level. The CDU also seeks benefits for asylum seekers that are aligned across Europe, along with fair distribution and financing. Family reunification would be limited to the nuclear family. The party also backs a federal asylum commission that would review and restrict the individual constitutional right to asylum in its current form. Causes of flight are to be addressed so fewer people leave their home countries, and the party says a new social consensus on migration is needed.

The CDU calls for fixed border checks that allow people to be turned back, plus random police checks near the border. This is to apply until, in its view, the Schengen system works again. The aim is to permanently reduce irregular migration into Germany.

The CDU wants fixed checks at the borders. Police should be able to send people back there. This should last until Europe's rules work again. Saxony's police should patrol together with Poland and Czechia.

Besides stationary checks, the CDU wants Schleierfahndung, meaning checks without specific suspicion in the border area. To fight people smuggling, Saxony's police would set up joint patrols with Polish and Czech officers. These patrols would continue until, as the program puts it, the Federal Police fulfills its responsibility for curbing irregular migration.

The CDU advocates holding asylum and protection-status procedures in countries outside the EU. Rule-of-law principles are to be upheld in the process. Within Saxony, asylum procedures are to be sped up.

The CDU wants asylum cases handled in countries outside the EU. Officials there would check who gets protection. The rules of the rule of law should apply. In Saxony, cases should go faster.

The program stresses that rule-of-law principles must be respected in procedures held in third countries. To speed things up, the CDU wants to use every option available to the state. Immigration offices are to become more efficient through digitalization. Data should flow seamlessly to other authorities.

The CDU wants rejected asylum seekers without a right to stay returned quickly to their home countries. A police unit that assists with deportations is to be expanded. From the federal government it demands more safe countries of origin and departure centers at major airports.

The CDU wants to send rejected asylum seekers back quickly. A police unit should help more with this. Offenders and people seen as dangerous should go first. The federal government should build departure centers at big airports.

A unit within Saxony's police is to be expanded to support the state administration (Landesdirektion) with removals. Repeat and high-volume offenders as well as people classified as security threats are to be returned first; the special unit "MITA" will be strengthened. The federal government is asked to add Tunisia and Morocco, among others, to the list of safe countries of origin. The CDU also calls for federal departure centers at major commercial airports.

The CDU opposes lowering the requirements for German citizenship. Anyone who wants to live in Germany should follow the rules and contribute to society.

The CDU does not want to make it easier to become a citizen. The conditions for a German passport should not be lowered. People who live here should follow the rules.

The program states its opposition to easier naturalization requirements twice. It appears alongside the demand that all newcomers follow the country's rules and take part in society. According to the program, extremism, racism and antisemitism have no place.

The CDU wants to integrate people with a right to stay and get them into work faster, with language learning seen as the most important key. At the same time it expects newcomers to follow the rules and wants to remove what it sees as false incentives, for example through the payment card.

The CDU wants to help people who are allowed to stay. They should learn German quickly and work. They should live in normal housing. In return, they should follow the rules. Asylum seekers get a payment card instead of cash.

Refugees with good prospects of staying should quickly move into decentralized housing and take up regular employment. The state would support municipalities and strengthen services in rural areas. Integration programs are to be funded, and responsibilities for migration and integration would be pooled at the state level. At the federal level the CDU wants to end false incentives and calls the payment card a first step. The program explicitly separates humanitarian migration from managed labor migration of skilled workers.

The CDU wants to support Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers from Eastern Europe) in education, work and social participation. Their life achievements are to be recognized more strongly, especially when pensions are calculated.

Spätaussiedler are people of German descent who moved to Germany from Eastern Europe. The CDU wants to help them in school and at work. Their life's work should count for more. This matters most for pensions. Young resettlers should find it easier to learn German.

The platform sets the goal of successfully integrating ethnic German resettlers into education and working life and of ensuring their participation in society. The CDU wants to support this group when pensions are calculated. The younger generation is to get better opportunities to learn the German language and culture, and their involvement in society is to be promoted. The party also wants to pool efforts around homeland and remembrance culture.