SPD on migration and integration

The SPD wants to create a state admission program for especially vulnerable refugees and internally displaced people. The central accommodation facilities are to be abolished, and refugees are to be housed quickly in decentralized accommodation instead.

The SPD wants the state to have its own admission program. The state would take in refugees who need protection the most. The large central shelters should close. Refugees should quickly live in smaller places in many towns.

The program describes the SPD's asylum and refugee policy as humanitarian and based on solidarity. Admission through the state program is to take place on humanitarian grounds. The SPD wants to support cities and municipalities that have declared themselves safe harbors. Refugee accommodation in the state is to be reorganized as a whole.

The SPD wants refugees to enter the labor market quickly and children to start school promptly. Those who are well integrated and support themselves should get a secure residence status sooner; the party also backs easier family reunification.

Refugees should find work quickly. Children should start school quickly. People who are well integrated and earn their own money should get a secure right to stay sooner. Families should be able to join them more easily. Language classes should be open to all immigrants.

The plan includes quick recognition of professional qualifications, additional training, continuing education and job-related language support. Women are to be drawn into the labor market through better childcare and targeted outreach. The SPD welcomes the federal government's plan to align family reunification for people with subsidiary protection with the rules for recognized refugees, and supports the same for siblings of unaccompanied minors. Repeated short-term toleration permits (Kettenduldungen) are to be avoided. The state wants to open and expand language, integration and orientation courses for all immigrants, also with a view to skilled-worker immigration.

The SPD wants the integration council to be the only municipal body for the political participation of people with an international family background. Its powers, resources and delegation rights are to be fundamentally reformed.

Cities have integration councils. There, people with an immigrant background have a say in local politics. The SPD wants this to be the only body for that purpose. The councils should get more powers and better resources.

The program calls integration councils an important part of the municipal participation structure. The commitment is to apply as long as people from non-EU countries cannot vote in local elections. In the SPD's view, political participation for this group is until then secured only through integration councils. The party also wants to keep supporting migrant self-organizations and involve them more closely in integration policy.

The SPD wants to launch a naturalization drive in the state and support the modernization of citizenship law. It sees dual citizenship and simpler naturalization requirements as key steps toward equal participation.

The SPD wants more people to get German citizenship. It plans a naturalization drive for this. People should be allowed to hold two passports. The rules for becoming a citizen should get simpler.

The state is to use all of its own leeway to adapt citizenship law to today's society. For well-integrated refugees, the SPD wants to make naturalization easier together with the federal government. The program calls immigration an enrichment and necessary for the economy.