Freie Wähler on migration and integration

The Free Voters want an immigration law that selects by qualification to meet the economy's need for skilled workers. Refugees who make an effort to integrate would be allowed to work or start training sooner and gain a prospect of staying.

The Free Voters want to bring skilled workers from abroad. A law should choose people by their training. Canada and Australia are the model. Refugees should be allowed to work sooner. Those who make an effort should be able to stay.

As an example, the platform mentions waiving the requirement to leave the country and go through a visa process abroad. No one would be deported during their entire education or training, whatever their residence status. Foreign educational qualifications would be recognized faster and more easily. The party wants to slow the emigration of high performers by making Bavaria more attractive, for instance by ending inheritance and gift tax and lowering business taxes.

The Free Voters want to sharply restrict family reunification for asylum seekers, speed up asylum procedures and continue to carry out deportations consistently. According to the platform, immigration should keep humanity and the capacity to integrate in balance.

The Free Voters want fewer family members of asylum seekers to follow them. Asylum cases should be decided faster. People who may not stay should have to leave. Asylum seekers should get goods rather than cash.

Before a deportation, return assistance would be offered; return agreements would be expanded and more pressure put on countries of origin that do not cooperate. Benefits in kind would keep priority over cash for asylum seekers. Housing would be primarily decentralized, with municipalities getting help to provide it. The platform wants to tackle the causes of flight through economic and trade policy and to support countries neighboring crisis regions in taking people in. War refugees would be treated equally regardless of where they come from.