Linke on migration and integration

The Left wants queer refugees who apply for asylum to be granted it. Permanently funded counseling services are to be created for them and for trans, intersex, and nonbinary people, and women and queer people should be able to live outside reception centers.

The Left wants to protect queer refugees. Anyone who is queer and seeks asylum should get it. There should be more counseling for these people. Women and queer people should be able to live in their own apartments.

Counseling services are to be expanded and funded. The party wants to talk with municipalities about apartments outside reception centers. Young queer refugees are to be placed more purposefully in Hilfen zur Erziehung, meaning youth welfare support services. Queer refugees are also to find cultural spaces tailored to their needs.

The Left wants to support students, especially those from abroad, from the start of their studies to their first job in Saxony-Anhalt. Help with language, recognition of qualifications, and residence status is meant to lead them to stay as skilled workers after graduating.

The Left wants to welcome students from other countries. They should get help with language and residence permits. The state should support them until their first job. That way they stay in Saxony-Anhalt after their studies.

The platform refers to so-called welcome chains, meaning continuous support from the first semester on. The move from the state-run preparatory colleges (Studienkollegs) in Halle and Magdeburg to the universities is to be made more attractive. Counties, cities, universities, and employers are to be linked more closely to shorten the path into employment. The state is to build its own structures for recruiting students and retaining graduates. A sociological report on higher education is to track students' background, academic success, and whether they stay.

The Left considers labor migration necessary because of demographic change and wants to make it fair. Temporary agency work, contracts for work, and subcontractors would be monitored more strictly, foreign vocational qualifications recognized faster, and exploitation punished more severely.

The Left says Saxony-Anhalt needs workers from abroad. These people should be paid fairly. The state should check temp work and subcontractors more strictly. Foreign job qualifications should be recognized faster. There should be advice centers for these workers.

In agriculture, construction, and logistics, the platform plans targeted inspections by the customs unit for undeclared work (Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit) and state authorities. Public contracts would go only to companies that pay collectively agreed wages and do not use exploitative models. The state would invest in recognition offices, digital procedures, language support, and counseling. Statewide advice centers for migrant workers would operate with union support. Companies that train migrants and keep them on long-term would receive subsidies.

The Left calls for abolishing Frontex, the European border protection agency. It places the demand in the context of a united, democratic and social Europe.

Frontex is the EU agency that guards the outer borders. The Left wants to abolish this agency. It wants a social and democratic Europe.

Frontex is the EU's border and coast guard agency. The platform demands its abolition in a single sentence at the end of the chapter on Europe. Just before, the party commits to a united, progressive Europe as an answer to the nationalist wars of the 20th century.

The Left sees immigration as an opportunity to counter population decline and labor shortages. It wants to reform the state's reception law (Aufnahmegesetz) and set up an integration budget for municipalities. Dealings with authorities would be bundled in one-stop shops.

Fewer and fewer people live in Saxony-Anhalt. So the Left sees immigration as a chance. Towns and cities should get money for integration. Immigrants should be able to handle everything at one office.

Municipalities would get money from the budget with little red tape, for example for welcome initiatives, mentoring schemes and meeting centers. Proven projects would get permanent funding so that providers and volunteers can plan ahead. The platform promises language courses across the state, recognition of qualifications and the option of family reunification. It justifies this with a shrinking population, unfilled jobs, the pension system and threatened structures in rural areas.

The Left wants to give all immigrants immediate access to language courses, whatever their residence status. Foreign vocational qualifications would be recognized within six months. Welcome centers would connect municipalities, initiatives and authorities.

All immigrants should be able to learn German right away. This applies to every age and every residence status. Job qualifications from abroad should be recognized within six months. Courses should also exist in rural areas.

General courses would be followed by job-related language courses, including in rural areas. In-person courses close to home would be the norm, with digital learning platforms as an alternative. People who still need to make up something for recognition would be offered bridging qualifications. The welcome centers would work as a network for guidance and an open welcoming culture.

The Left wants to abolish the Bezahlkarte (payment card) for refugees, which it considers discriminatory. It would be replaced by a mandatory basic bank account so that those affected can manage their own money.

Refugees today often get benefits on a payment card. The Left thinks this is unfair. It wants to abolish the card. Instead, people should get their own bank account.

The Bezahlkarte is a prepaid card through which asylum seekers receive benefits and which limits access to cash. The platform lists the demand under the heading of managing one's own account. It is part of a set of measures meant to turn arrival into settling in.

The Left wants public authorities and institutions to lead by example on integration. People with a migration background would be given priority in public-sector hiring, and staff would receive intercultural training.

The Left wants more diversity in public offices and schools. The state should hire more people with a migration background. Staff should get courses on other cultures and languages. There should also be more teachers with a migration background.

A diversity strategy would make hiring people with a migration background a priority. All relevant staff would receive training in intercultural skills and languages. Teachers with a migration background would be approached and qualified in a targeted way. The art, culture and music of the respective groups of origin would be included in teaching.

The Left wants children from immigrant families to receive language support as early as daycare so that they start school without a deficit. This is to be complemented by mentoring programs, parental involvement and curricula that reflect cultural diversity. The platform justifies this with equal starting chances for children who will stay in the state permanently.

The Left wants to help children from immigrant families early. They should learn German well in daycare. Parents should take part. Mentors should guide people who are new in the country.

Language support is to begin in daycare. In mentoring programs, people with a migration background would accompany newcomers with a similar history and of a similar age. Under so-called family learning, parents are involved in their children's language lessons and tutoring in daycare and elementary school. Curricula are to reflect cultural diversity, including in terms of language. In addition, a statewide interpreting service is to become standard in public administration and medical care.

The Left wants to launch a state program that brings together immigrants, authorities and employers to help people take up work. Work permits are to be issued more easily and foreign qualifications aligned through bridging courses. The platform attributes high unemployment among people with foreign passports to structural discrimination.

The Left wants to make it easier for immigrants to find work. The state should start a new program for this. Work permits should be easier to get. Skilled workers from abroad should be able to take a one-year course.

The employment agency is to be involved in career counseling and job placement from the start of the asylum procedure. The planned state program includes a municipal budget to promote taking up work and a simplified work permit process. Twelve-month bridging programs are meant to bring doctors, engineers and tradespeople, for example, up to local training standards. The platform cites 20.3 percent unemployment among people with foreign passports compared with 9 percent in the general population. The Left also wants to push for equal employee rights for equal work.

The Left declares the right to asylum, protection from deportation and family reunification to be untouchable. It sides with people seeking protection, arguing that flight results from coercion and a lack of alternatives. In its view, migration policy should not be guided by people's economic usefulness.

The Left wants to protect the right to asylum. Refugees should be safe from deportation. Families should be allowed to live together. The party says: No one flees without need.

The platform names war, violence, political persecution, authoritarian regimes, extreme poverty and the effects of the climate crisis as reasons for flight. Family reunification is to apply equally to all people. The Left links protection and participation with good working conditions, social security and equal rights for everyone living in the state. The goal is social structures that allow a self-determined life regardless of origin.