Grüne on migration and integration

The Greens want Saxony-Anhalt to actively support protection programs for at-risk women and queer people from Iran and Afghanistan. State admission programs are to be continued permanently. Protection should also cover people affected by transnational repression.

Women and queer people are in danger in Iran and Afghanistan. The Greens want Saxony-Anhalt to support programs that protect them. The state should keep its own admission programs for good. People who are persecuted here by a foreign state should also get protection.

The state is to take part in protection programs for threatened women and queer people from the two countries. The state's own admission programs are to remain in place for the long term. The promise of protection is explicitly extended to people affected by transnational repression, meaning persecution by foreign states across borders.

The Greens want compulsory schooling to apply immediately to all children with a migration background and want them placed in regular classes quickly. To that end, there would be more teachers of German as a second language.

Immigrant children should go to school right away. They should join normal classes quickly. There should be more teachers for German. Parents should get information in their own language.

Schools with many children lacking sufficient German would get a fixed quota of German-as-a-second-language teachers. Language and cultural mediators would ease communication between schools, children and parents. Multilingual advice and information would help parents with a refugee or migration background take part in school life.

The Greens want newcomers to get information, counseling and opportunities to participate from day one, and plan municipal or regional arrival centers across the state. The platform treats immigration as a necessity and an enrichment; it is to be actively managed in order to attract skilled workers.

The Greens want to welcome new immigrants well. They should get information and advice from the start. There should be arrival centers everywhere. These offer all key help in one place. The Greens say the state needs immigration for skilled workers.

Digital and printed welcome packages in several languages are planned, covering housing, health, school, work, counseling and participation. The arrival centers are to bring together counseling, the immigration office, the job center, language course advice, volunteer placement, psychosocial help, childcare and legal advice. Procedures are to become faster. Immigration policy is to respond to an aging society and secure economic and social stability. Accommodation is to be clean and well connected.

The Greens want procedures at immigration offices, job centers, social welfare offices and reception facilities to be faster, digital and better coordinated. Immigration offices are to be better equipped and developed into migration centers that support integration.

The Greens want faster procedures for newcomers. Offices should work digitally and coordinate better. Immigration offices should get more resources. They should help people integrate.

According to the platform, long waits, lack of transparency and uncertainty damage trust in the state. People should quickly get clarity about their status and prospects so they can plan their lives. Staff at immigration offices should focus more on integration, for example by granting more Ausbildungsduldungen (permits to stay for vocational training). Wherever possible, refugees should be moved quickly into private apartments.

The Greens want newcomers to be able to attend language courses from their first day, regardless of recognition or pending administrative procedures. The state is to guarantee reliable language instruction everywhere; attendance is to be mandatory and enforced if necessary.

The Greens want language courses from the first day. Nobody should have to wait for an office decision first. The state should offer courses everywhere. Everyone must attend the courses.

The platform calls language the key to work, education and everyday life. It provides for flexible course formats, courses alongside a job, childcare and courses close to home. The platform justifies mandatory attendance by saying everyone should be able to use the opportunities of integration. Language learning is also to be supported through participation in work, education, neighborhoods and volunteering.

The Greens want to give newcomers access to jobs, internships, training and recognition counseling as early as possible. Recognition of foreign vocational qualifications is to become faster and more digital. The platform sees work as the strongest driver of integration.

The Greens want newcomers to be allowed to work early. They should quickly get jobs, internships and advice. Degrees from abroad should be recognized faster. The Greens say work helps integration the most.

After a review of current recognition procedures, bureaucratic hurdles are to be removed and fixed targets set for how long applications take. Funding programs and support for labor market integration are to be made permanent and adapted to need. The administration is to actively use and promote the so-called Spurwechsel, meaning a switch from the asylum track to a work-based residence status.

The Greens call for abolishing the Bezahlkarte (payment card for asylum seekers), which the platform regards as discriminatory. Social benefits are to be paid out as cash to everyone alike.

The Greens want to abolish the payment card. Today refugees often get their benefits on this card. The Greens think this is unfair. Everyone should get their benefits as money.

The platform calls the payment card a discriminatory practice that should end for good. Benefits are to be paid as cash without distinction. The reason given is that every person should be free to decide how to use their money.

The Greens want long-term funding for associations, initiatives, migrant organizations, sponsorship programs and volunteers working on integration, and want them built into local plans. Newcomers are to get early access to sports, culture, volunteering and civic education.

The Greens want to fund clubs and groups that help newcomers. The money should be secure for a long time. Newcomers should be able to join sports and culture early. Guides should support them.

Integration work is to be expanded through mentors and integration guides; the platform suggests a dedicated state program at the social affairs ministry for this. Bodies in which people with a migration background represent themselves are to be funded and routinely involved in state politics. The platform sees participation as the driver of successful integration and as a democratic promise of equal opportunity.

The Greens want to set up a one-stop agency for international skilled workers, staff in shortage occupations and founders. It is meant to bundle official procedures and keep international talent in the state long term.

The Greens want one central office for skilled workers from abroad. They get all help in one place there. They should find work and learn German more easily. This should make them stay in the state for a long time.

The platform says targeted programs to retain international skilled workers are currently lacking. The agency would bring bureaucratic processes together, offer guidance and ease access to work, language and society. The party also relies on qualification and further training in shortage occupations.