FDP on migration and integration

The FDP wants to manage labor immigration through a points system modeled on Canada's. It justifies this with demographic change and the labor shortage in the state of Bremen. Foreign vocational qualifications should be recognized more simply and quickly.

The FDP wants to bring in more skilled workers from abroad. There should be a points system like in Canada. People get points for things like education, language and work experience. Foreign qualifications should be recognized faster.

The program names age, level of education, work experience, German or English skills and labor-market demand as criteria. The rules for assessing whether a foreign qualification is equivalent should become simpler. The responsible offices should get more staff so that procedures run much faster. The FDP cites elder care and nursing as examples of untapped qualifications. To be attractive to skilled workers and their families, Bremen's education system should also improve.

The FDP wants to let well-integrated people seeking protection make a "Spurwechsel" (change of track) into labor migration. Anyone who is working, in training or studying should not be expelled. All asylum seekers and people with tolerated status should be allowed to work after three months without approval from the Federal Employment Agency.

The FDP wants refugees to be allowed to work sooner. After three months, everyone should be able to take a job. An agency no longer has to approve it. People who work or are in training should be allowed to stay. The FDP calls this a change of track.

The work permit after the three-month waiting period should also apply to people from so-called safe countries of origin. Employers would no longer need prior approval from the Federal Employment Agency. Where possible, applications should be filed in the home country, for example at embassies. The FDP argues that earning one's own living strengthens integration and social peace and eases the burden on public budgets.

The FDP wants an integration policy that welcomes immigrants but also expects them to make their own effort. Language and integration courses should be available everywhere and free of charge from the start. In addition, neighborhoods should become more socially and culturally mixed.

The FDP wants immigrants to become part of society. Language courses should be free and start right away. People should also attend the courses. Different people should live mixed together in the neighborhoods.

The courses are meant above all to teach respect for the legal order and democracy, including gender equality, acceptance of different sexual orientations and identities, and religious tolerance. To prevent ethnically segregated neighborhoods, the departments for social affairs, education, and construction are to cooperate more closely. The plan includes special funding for schools in districts with many children from immigrant families, enough daycare places, and a contribution from public housing construction. The FDP rejects a blanket social housing quota because, in its view, it puts further strain on disadvantaged districts.

The FDP commits to the constitutional right to asylum and to admitting war refugees without red tape. At the same time, it demands complete registration at the border, consistent deportations, and enough detention places for people awaiting deportation. Some unaccompanied minor refugees are to be redistributed to other states.

The FDP wants to keep the right to asylum. War refugees should be able to stay easily for a limited time. People who must leave should be deported. Bremen should have to care for fewer young refugees without parents.

War refugees should generally be allowed to stay for a limited period with little bureaucracy. To protect women and children, the FDP wants more police and protection zones at train stations where many refugees arrive. The federal government alone should be responsible for protection status, ending residence, and deportation, while the state handles housing, care, and integration. According to the platform, Bremen cares for more unaccompanied minors than the Königstein Key (the formula for distributing burdens among the states) requires, costing about 27.5 million euros extra; they are to be redistributed until the quota is met. Deportations are to take place as long as those affected face neither torture nor the death penalty.