CDU on migration and integration

The CDU wants degrees and qualifications earned abroad to be recognized more easily and more quickly. It plans to push for this at the federal level and to speed up procedures at the responsible state office. The federal Skilled Immigration Act is to be put to use in the state.

Many skilled workers earned their degree in another country. The CDU wants these degrees to count faster. The state office should work faster. The federal government should also improve the rules.

According to the platform, a large part of the answer to the labor shortage lies in targeted recruitment from abroad. The CDU wants the federal government to improve the recognition of degrees and the certification of qualifications. At the Landesamt für Zuwanderung und Flüchtlinge (state office for immigration and refugees), recognition and other procedures are to run faster. The federal strategy with its portal "Make it in Germany" is to keep receiving support, as is the integration of the families of newly arrived workers and of people returning from abroad.

The CDU wants to press the federal government once more for the so-called Spurwechsel (lane change). It would let people apply for immigration not only from abroad but also when they are already in Germany.

The CDU wants a new federal rule. It is called Spurwechsel, or lane change. People could then apply for immigration while already in Germany. Today this mostly works only from abroad.

The demand is part of the plan to secure enough skilled workers. The platform stresses that the CDU has already pursued this at the federal level and intends to take it up again. The federal government is responsible for the rule, so the state can only advocate for it there.

The CDU wants to actively recruit skilled workers abroad for Schleswig-Holstein through a campaign, partnerships, and recruitment projects in at least three countries. A welcome center is to serve employers and newcomers as a central point of contact. The stated goal is more targeted immigration of skilled workers.

The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from other countries. There should be ads abroad for this. At least three countries should get fixed projects. A welcome center should help companies and new workers. It is one central place for all questions.

A campaign inside and outside the EU is to promote working conditions, career prospects, and quality of life in the state, especially for sectors with severe shortages. The CDU wants to start or expand strategic partnerships with other countries and regions and to support companies that recruit on their own. Projects with a local presence are planned in at least three countries, for example together with German chambers of commerce abroad or Goethe-Institut branches. For the welcome center, the CDU wants to examine restructuring the central office for skilled immigration at the state immigration office. Suitable schooling, including international schools, is planned for the workers' children.

The CDU commits to taking in people in need of protection and also wants to promote targeted immigration of skilled workers. It cites humanitarian responsibility and a growing skills shortage, while pointing to limited reception capacity.

The CDU wants to keep helping people in need. Refugees should get protection. The state also needs skilled workers from abroad. The CDU wants to support their immigration. But it also says the state cannot take in unlimited numbers.

According to the program, Schleswig-Holstein continues to need immigration because the skills shortage cannot be solved with the existing workforce alone. Refugees with a right of residence are to find a new home in the state. The CDU points to the state admission program of the last term, which took in 500 mainly traumatized women and children. At the same time, it stresses that the state's capacity has limits.

The CDU wants to end the stay of people with no claim to protection and enforce the obligation to leave the country, especially for criminal offenders. People arriving without identity papers are to receive binding substitute documents whose details can only be changed if they themselves provide proof.

Some people are not allowed to stay in Germany. The CDU wants them to actually leave. This applies above all to criminals. People who arrive without ID should get a substitute paper. Anyone who wants to change its details must prove them.

The CDU favors orderly immigration and names common European rules and strong protection of the EU's external borders as preconditions. Asylum seekers whose rejection is final are to be required to leave. The program points to the deportation detention facility in Glückstadt, opened in 2021 and run jointly with Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. For substitute documents issued to people without identity papers, the burden of proof is to be reversed when details are to be changed later.

The CDU wants to expand language and integration programs and make them more practical, while expecting immigrants to learn German quickly. It describes integration as a matter of both support and demands.

The CDU says learning German matters most for integration. It wants to offer more language courses. The courses should help women in particular. There should also be more online courses. But the CDU expects immigrants to learn German quickly.

Additional programs are meant to reach women above all. Digital formats are to make access easier for people in rural areas. Daycare centers and elementary schools are to gradually introduce mandatory support for language and motor skills, and a BildungsPlus program in daycare is to promote reading and writing. The CDU wants to strengthen education for young immigrants in daycare, school and work. The program names the constitution, laws, tolerance and gender equality as the basis for living together, and says willingness to integrate may be demanded.

The CDU wants to press the federal government to give a job more weight in deciding whether someone may stay in Germany. Alongside language, it sees work as a central condition for integration.

The CDU thinks work is important for integration. People with a job should have a better chance to stay. The CDU wants to push the federal government on this. The federal government makes these rules.

The program calls integration into work indispensable so that immigrants become lasting contributors to society and the social systems. The CDU describes the existing Beschäftigungsduldung (a tolerated-stay status tied to employment) as a first step in the right direction. That rule lets tolerated persons with steady work remain for the time being. Proof of a job is to count even more in the future.

The CDU wants to give towns and cities more support for their integration services, since it sees integration as happening locally. It also plans statewide naturalization ceremonies, multilingual information campaigns and quick distribution of people granted asylum to housing across the state.

Integration happens in towns and villages. The CDU wants to give them more support for this. People who become German should get a ceremony. Important information should come in several languages. Refugees with protection should quickly be able to live anywhere in the state.

Local services are to be developed further, pooled and made permanent, such as help with visits to government offices. The CDU wants to review the financial support for municipalities under the state's integration and participation law. Naturalization ceremonies are to give the granting of citizenship a festive setting across the state. Campaigns in various languages are meant to counter disinformation; the program cites experience from the coronavirus pandemic. To prevent new deprived neighborhoods, people granted asylum should not be housed centrally for long. Schools are to keep addressing different cultural backgrounds.