Grüne on migration and integration

The Greens want to simplify the recognition of foreign degrees and vocational qualifications and create a state scholarship for supplementary training. Immigrants and refugees should be able to work in the profession they trained for. State programs for labor market integration are to continue.

Many people learned their job in another country. The Greens want them to work in that job here more easily. There should be advice, language courses and money for extra training. Refugees should also get help finding work.

Planned measures include counseling at public agencies, easier rules when documents are missing, and help with language and missing professional knowledge. The scholarship program is to follow Hamburg's example, and training courses in fields such as health, nursing, technology, education, and IT are to be brought to the state. At the federal level, supplementary qualification is to be anchored in law and the IQ networks strengthened. The network “Alle an Bord!” for refugees and employers is to be strengthened. The central office for skilled immigration is to also advise people already living in Germany.

The Greens want refugees to stay no more than three months in state-run reception centers and to move quickly into their own housing. The party rejects work bans and repeated short-term toleration permits (Kettenduldungen). People seeking protection should have access to language learning, education and medical care from the start.

Refugees first live in centers run by the state. The Greens want them to stay there three months at most. After that they should quickly get their own home. The Greens reject bans on working. Children should go to daycare and school right away.

The platform's guiding idea is a “real arrival” in an open society. All state and municipal shelters are to have protection plans for especially vulnerable groups. The Greens want to help refugees move into their own apartments. Children and teenagers should attend daycare and school from the beginning. Access to language, vocational training and medical care should also be available from day one.

The Greens want to offer language courses to every new arrival and expand what is available. Young and adult refugees should get support to earn a school diploma, which the party sees as the prerequisite for entering skilled work.

The Greens want language courses for everyone who newly arrives. There should be more courses. Adults should also be able to earn a school diploma. With a diploma they can start job training.

For adults, vocational schools are to expand programs that lead to a school diploma. Adapted language courses, in person and online, are planned for people with disabilities, people caring for children or relatives, and people who cannot read or write. More courses are also intended for people who immigrated long ago and had no regular access at the time. The party wants to actively support teenagers arriving at 16 or 17 in finishing school.

The Greens want to introduce legal advice that is independent of government agencies so that people seeking protection know and can use their procedural rights. Existing counseling services are to be developed into a coordinated statewide network.

The Greens want new legal advice for refugees. This advice does not belong to a government office. That way people learn everything about their rights. Counseling centers in the state should work together better.

Especially vulnerable people are to receive asylum procedure counseling that fits their protection needs and is gender-specific. The platform treats migration counseling centers as the foundation, supplemented by specialized services for women and LGBTIQ* refugees and for health and work. The network is also to include independent counseling on return and future prospects. The party wants to secure long-term funding for guardianship associations that support unaccompanied minors. Services for victims of gender-based persecution are to be safeguarded, and the Istanbul Convention is to be implemented in the asylum field as well.

The Greens want to speed up family reunification by having the state's immigration offices give advance approval. At the federal level the party wants minor status to be determined by the date of application. The state hardship commission should be accessible without a multi-year waiting period.

Many refugees wait a long time for their families. The Greens want to make these procedures faster. The offices should give their approval earlier. People in need should be able to turn to the hardship commission sooner. This commission looks at special individual cases.

The platform justifies the plan by noting that many immigrants and refugees wait years for their relatives. At the federal level, the date of application should decide whether someone counts as a minor in reunification procedures. The party describes the hardship commission as one of the few ways the state can influence long-term residence. The current requirement of several years of prior residence is to be dropped, which the platform says matches the nationwide standard.

The Greens want to oblige immigration offices to proactively inform and advise people about their rights to stay and to naturalize. The aim is to make sure people can actually claim what they are entitled to.

Some people may stay longer or become German citizens. Often they do not know this. The Greens want the office to write to these people on its own. It must also advise them.

The party backs federal decisions to open up prospects for staying more quickly and wants automated procedures for securing residence status. Anyone who meets the conditions of Sections 25a or 25b of the Residence Act, or the requirements for naturalization, is to receive timely written notice. The model is the duty to advise found in the Social Code (SGB). Offices are to work with migration counseling services and specialized agencies. The platform stresses that especially vulnerable and less mobile people should benefit.

The Greens want to place state humanitarian admission programs permanently alongside the asylum process. In the party's view this is the only way to create legal entry routes for especially vulnerable people. Municipalities are to get planning certainty and fair financial compensation.

The state has already taken in 500 people in need. The Greens want to make such programs permanent. That way people in great danger can enter legally. Cities and towns should get money and help from the state for this.

Admission of relatives of Syrians living in the state is to continue, and the party wants to examine a similar rule for relatives of Afghans. For people rescued at sea, municipalities' willingness and voice should carry more weight; the platform welcomes the “Safe Harbor” declarations. The state wants to extend admission of Afghan local staff to employees of German NGOs, and the party is pushing for a matching federal program. It also sees a humanitarian duty to create legal entry routes for climate-related migration.

The Greens reject deportations to war and crisis zones and want to push for a general halt to deportations there. Deportation detention is to be abolished, and the party rejects the concept of safe countries of origin.

The Greens do not want to send anyone back to countries at war. Examples are Afghanistan and Syria. The Greens are also against deportation detention. That means locking people up before they are deported. Children and teenagers should never be held this way in the state.

According to the platform, returns always involve human hardship. The legal basis for ending deportation detention is to be created at the federal and EU levels. The party points to a Schleswig-Holstein initiative under which minors are no longer to be detained nationwide. Until the federal government decides, the state is to keep its practice of not placing children and teenagers in deportation detention.

The Greens want to use the state's leeway in residence law in favor of those affected and to equip immigration offices well. Public administrations are to receive anti-discrimination training, women are to be addressed on equal terms, and volunteers in refugee aid are to get reliable support.

The state can decide some things in residence law itself. The Greens want to use this to help the people affected. The offices should be well equipped. Staff should get training against unfair treatment. Volunteer helpers should get steady support.

Digital and automated processes are meant to ease the workload of staff in regulatory offices. The party wants to prevent practices such as registering only the man as the main benefit recipient with control of the family account. Women's counseling centers, family centers and early support services are to get more funds for refugee and immigrant women and girls. The funding guideline for integration and participation in counties and independent cities is to be continued and developed. Volunteers are to be linked with paid staff and given access to supervision and interpreters.