Linke on migration and integration

The Left wants refugees to have a right to a work permit and work bans to be dropped. Those already in work are to get a secure prospect of staying. The platform also justifies this with the labor shortage following emigration from Thuringia.

Some refugees are not allowed to work. The Left wants to end these bans. Refugees should be able to earn their own money. People who already have a job should be allowed to stay. Thuringia is short of many workers.

The party calls for a Spurwechsel (change of track), meaning a switch from the asylum procedure to a residence status for work, which should be possible without major hurdles. People who are required to leave but cannot, for example because of a deportation ban, should also be allowed to work. Applications for work permits are to be processed quickly. The Left wants to examine an advance state-level rule on discretionary toleration status. The platform also mentions more attractive vocational training, affordable housing for apprentices, and better wages to keep people in the state or bring them back. The "Faire Mobilität" project against wage dumping affecting migrant workers is to keep receiving support.

The Left wants to create a state office for migration and integration that combines legal and technical oversight and sets uniform procedures for immigration authorities. The aim is easier access to education, work, and participation for all immigrants, backed by more language courses and individual integration plans.

The Left wants a new office for migration and integration. It should make sure all authorities follow the same rules. Immigrants should find work and education more easily. There should be good German courses everywhere. Forms should be available in several languages.

The state office is to work with uniform procedural guidelines and a plan for well-staffed immigration authorities. The platform foresees multilingual information and forms, more video interpreting, and use of the state's discretion in residence law. Language courses are to be offered statewide, and the state program "Start Deutsch" is to be extended up to level B2. New models are meant to combine starting work and learning the language early on. A clearing procedure is to record refugees' skills, knowledge, and needs and lead to a personal integration plan.

The Left rejects Ankerzentren (large centralized reception and processing centers) and instead wants to improve conditions in initial reception and keep enough places available. Refugees are to live in apartments spread across communities and be free to choose where they live in Thuringia.

The Left does not want Anker centers. These are large shared centers for asylum seekers. The first shelter should get better. It should offer privacy, doctors, and advice. Refugees should live in apartments and choose where they live.

Initial reception facilities are to guarantee privacy, medical care, multilingual counseling, non-discriminatory payment systems, and good food. Early screening is meant to identify special protection needs so that procedural guarantees and suitable housing apply. Besides more initial reception places, rules are to be created for using public properties as well as guesthouses, hotels, or youth hostels. The party wants to allow free choice of residence by amending the state's refugee reception law. It also plans independent contact points and a permanently funded specialist counseling office for unaccompanied minors and young adult refugees.

The Left wants to defend the right to asylum and advocates admission programs and deportation halts for particularly vulnerable groups such as Yazidis. Children and young people living in youth welfare facilities are to be protected from deportation by decree.

The Left wants to protect people who have fled. Groups in special danger should not be deported. Yazidis are one example. Programs for people from Syria and Afghanistan should continue. Children in youth welfare homes should not be deported.

The admission programs for Syria and Afghanistan are to continue, with lower hurdles for using them; persecuted Yazidis are to receive refugee status with a prospect of staying. The platform calls for safe escape routes and describes the designation of safe countries of origin as symbolic politics. A decree is meant to make it easier for parents and siblings to join unaccompanied refugee minors. Municipalities that want to take in people rescued at sea as "Safe Harbors" are to receive support. Independent asylum procedure counseling is to be expanded statewide, and the Thuringia Refugee Council is to keep receiving institutional funding. At the federal level, the party wants the inviolability of the home to apply in refugee shelters too.

The Left wants to work in the Bundesrat to abolish the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz (Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act), which it considers discriminatory. It is to be replaced by an immigration law, combined with easier access to language courses, integration courses, and work.

Asylum seekers get social benefits under a separate law. The Left thinks this law is unfair. It wants to abolish it. A new immigration law should take its place. Immigrants should be able to learn German and work more easily.

The Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act sets out separate, usually lower benefits for asylum seekers. The party wants to achieve its abolition through the Bundesrat and introduce an immigration law that it describes as based on solidarity. Hurdles to language and integration courses and to the job market are to be removed. The platform states the goal that immigrants can support themselves as early as possible.

The Left wants to achieve at the federal level that the restrictions on family reunification are dropped. Parents should be able to join their children even if those children have since come of age. A state fund is to cover financial burdens arising from declarations of commitment.

Refugees can often bring their families over only within limits. The Left wants to remove these limits. Parents should also be allowed to join children who have become adults. The state should help with its own fund.

The demand is aimed at the federal level, where the rules on relatives joining refugees are set. Parents are to be allowed to join their child even if the child came of age during the procedure. With a declaration of commitment, private individuals pledge to cover the living costs of people joining family in Germany. The party wants to set up a state fund for the costs that result.

The Left wants to keep the health card and the anonymous treatment voucher so that refugees continue to receive medical care without restrictions. Psychosocial and therapeutic care is also to be expanded.

Refugees should still be able to see a doctor. There is a health card and an anonymous treatment voucher for this. With the voucher, people do not have to give their name. The Left wants to keep both. There should also be more mental health support.

The anonymous voucher allows treatment without disclosing one's identity. The platform calls for ensuring the expansion of psychosocial and therapeutic services. Interpreting costs for medical treatment are to be covered as a social benefit.