Grüne on migration and integration

The Greens want to make SPRINT, a language and integration project for young refugees, a permanent part of vocational schools. In addition, trainees from foster families or children's homes would no longer have to hand over part of their income for their care.

The Greens want to help young refugees get into job training. The SPRINT project helps them learn German. It should become a fixed part of vocational schools. Trainees from foster families or homes should keep their pay.

SPRINT is a state government project for young refugees and is to become part of regular vocational school operations. The platform argues that people with a migration background need targeted access to dual vocational training. The cost contribution, meaning a share of care costs paid from one's own income, would be dropped for trainees who live or lived in foster families or youth homes.

The Greens want to make Lower Saxony a "safe harbor" for people fleeing hardship, violence and war. To do so, the state's former admission program is to be restarted. States should in future be able to adopt such programs without approval from the Federal Interior Ministry.

The Greens want to take in more people in need. Lower Saxony once had its own program for this. That program should start again. Cities and counties should be allowed to take in extra refugees. The state should help them.

The state admission program introduced under an SPD-Green government is to be relaunched. Counties and independent cities that wish to take in more refugees than their quota provides are to receive support. In the Bundesrat, the Greens want to amend Section 23 of the Residence Act so that states can set up their own admission programs independently.

The Greens want newly arrived refugees to be housed quickly in decentralized accommodation and offered counseling and language courses early on. They should stay in initial reception centers for no more than three months. Shelters are to meet high minimum standards that are checked independently.

Refugees should not live long in large reception centers. They should stay there three months at most. After that they should live in towns and cities. They should quickly get language courses and advice. Independent inspectors should check the shelters.

An integrated reception management system is meant to improve the path from arrival to housing in municipalities. All refugees should receive an orientation offer, such as an introductory course, soon after arriving. The platform calls the inspection of shelter standards a "Heim-TÜV" (shelter inspection). Children and teenagers should attend school as soon as possible. Independent providers are to offer neutral asylum procedure counseling continuously at every site; the needs of women traveling alone, families, queer people and people with disabilities are to be considered, and volunteers better supported.

The Greens want to protect unaccompanied minor refugees through binding admission rules based on child welfare and youth welfare law. The party rejects deporting young people who fall under youth welfare law. Young refugees should find it easier to earn school diplomas.

Some children and teenagers flee without their parents. The Greens want to protect them better. The child's well-being should always come first. These young people should not be deported. They should attend regular schools and be able to catch up on diplomas.

Refugee children and teenagers are to have the same access to child and youth services as others. The platform considers official procedures for determining age questionable; in case of doubt, decisions should favor the child's welfare. For refugees up to age 25, options for earning a school diploma later are to improve markedly. Refugees should attend regular schools, and educational qualifications from abroad should be recognized faster and with less red tape.

The Greens want deportations to take place only as an exception and after a thorough review of each case. They call for a general halt to deportations to war and crisis zones and reject the concept of safe countries of origin. The party considers pre-deportation detention disproportionate as a rule.

The Greens want far fewer deportations. Each case should be checked carefully. Nobody should be deported to a country at war. The Greens reject the list of safe countries of origin. They think detention before deportation is usually wrong.

When weighing a case, the consequences for family members are to count especially. Where violence or unacceptable living conditions threaten, for example from armed conflict, deportation is to be ruled out. For pre-deportation detention, the platform demands a dedicated law that sets out detainees' rights, guarantees free legal advice and establishes independent monitoring of deportations. Counseling on voluntary return is to be handled by independent non-governmental providers.

The Greens want to remove barriers to participation and a political voice for immigrants. A new law is to secure access to education, work and political involvement, and immigration offices are to become "welcome offices." Migrant counseling is to be funded permanently as a statutory state service.

The Greens see Lower Saxony as a state of immigration. Immigrants should find it easier to take part and have a say. A new law is planned for this. Immigration offices should become friendlier and more helpful. Advice services for immigrants should get lasting state money.

The offices are to work closely with civil-society organizations in the migration field, and immigrants' own organizations are to be included in politics as equal partners. A new action program on participation is meant to improve access to services, especially language courses; existing state programs are to be expanded. Public administration, schools and the police are to open up interculturally and better represent people with a migration background. For police and security agencies, this means reviewing practices and adapting initial and ongoing training.

The Greens want a campaign to encourage more people to become citizens and will push at the federal level for further easing. In addition, everyone who has lived in Germany for at least three years should be able to vote in local elections, regardless of nationality.

The Greens want more people to get a German passport. They plan a campaign for this. The path to citizenship should become easier. People without a German passport should also vote in their town. They must have lived in Germany for three years.

A state naturalization campaign is meant to promote acquiring German citizenship. Through the Bundestag and Bundesrat, the Greens want to further relax the rules for naturalization. For local voting rights, the party seeks an electoral reform that no longer distinguishes by nationality after three years of residence.

The Greens want to end so-called Kettenduldungen in Lower Saxony, meaning repeatedly renewed tolerated stays without secure status. People who have lived this way, some for many years, are to get a path to a permanent right to stay.

Some people have lived in Germany for years with only a tolerated stay. That means they may stay for now, but without a secure right. The Greens want to end this. These people should be allowed to stay for good.

The state is to make full use of the leeway in current residence law, for example through a stronger hardship commission. At the federal level, the Greens push for a more liberal Residence Act and back swift implementation of the humanitarian right to stay announced by the federal government. Projects such as "Wege ins Bleiberecht" (Paths to a Right to Stay) are to be developed further.

The Greens want a state program that lets threatened human rights activists and politically persecuted people stay in Lower Saxony for a limited time. Scholarships would fund this respite.

Some people fight for human rights in their country. They are threatened for it. The Greens want to give them shelter in Lower Saxony for a while. They would get a scholarship, which is money to live on.

The program justifies the proposal by noting that governments in many countries deliberately target human rights defenders. A temporary stay abroad is meant to help them escape acute danger and recover. North Rhine-Westphalia is cited as a model. Lower Saxony would thereby contribute to protecting human rights worldwide.