What do the parties in Schleswig-Holstein say on migration and integration?

The CDU wants degrees and qualifications earned abroad to be recognized more easily and more quickly. It plans to push for this at the federal level and to speed up procedures at the responsible state office. The federal Skilled Immigration Act is to be put to use in the state.

Many skilled workers earned their degree in another country. The CDU wants these degrees to count faster. The state office should work faster. The federal government should also improve the rules.

The CDU wants to press the federal government once more for the so-called Spurwechsel (lane change). It would let people apply for immigration not only from abroad but also when they are already in Germany.

The CDU wants a new federal rule. It is called Spurwechsel, or lane change. People could then apply for immigration while already in Germany. Today this mostly works only from abroad.

The CDU wants to actively recruit skilled workers abroad for Schleswig-Holstein through a campaign, partnerships, and recruitment projects in at least three countries. A welcome center is to serve employers and newcomers as a central point of contact. The stated goal is more targeted immigration of skilled workers.

The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from other countries. There should be ads abroad for this. At least three countries should get fixed projects. A welcome center should help companies and new workers. It is one central place for all questions.

The CDU commits to taking in people in need of protection and also wants to promote targeted immigration of skilled workers. It cites humanitarian responsibility and a growing skills shortage, while pointing to limited reception capacity.

The CDU wants to keep helping people in need. Refugees should get protection. The state also needs skilled workers from abroad. The CDU wants to support their immigration. But it also says the state cannot take in unlimited numbers.

The CDU wants to end the stay of people with no claim to protection and enforce the obligation to leave the country, especially for criminal offenders. People arriving without identity papers are to receive binding substitute documents whose details can only be changed if they themselves provide proof.

Some people are not allowed to stay in Germany. The CDU wants them to actually leave. This applies above all to criminals. People who arrive without ID should get a substitute paper. Anyone who wants to change its details must prove them.

The CDU wants to expand language and integration programs and make them more practical, while expecting immigrants to learn German quickly. It describes integration as a matter of both support and demands.

The CDU says learning German matters most for integration. It wants to offer more language courses. The courses should help women in particular. There should also be more online courses. But the CDU expects immigrants to learn German quickly.

The CDU wants to press the federal government to give a job more weight in deciding whether someone may stay in Germany. Alongside language, it sees work as a central condition for integration.

The CDU thinks work is important for integration. People with a job should have a better chance to stay. The CDU wants to push the federal government on this. The federal government makes these rules.

The CDU wants to give towns and cities more support for their integration services, since it sees integration as happening locally. It also plans statewide naturalization ceremonies, multilingual information campaigns and quick distribution of people granted asylum to housing across the state.

Integration happens in towns and villages. The CDU wants to give them more support for this. People who become German should get a ceremony. Important information should come in several languages. Refugees with protection should quickly be able to live anywhere in the state.

The FDP wants a new law on skilled immigration with a points system. It should also allow a "lane change," meaning a switch, for example, from tolerated status to a residence permit for work. The background is the shortage of workers and skilled staff.

The state lacks skilled workers. The FDP wants skilled workers from abroad to come more easily. A points system should be used for this. People who are only tolerated should also be able to stay if they work.

The FDP supports legal immigration based on clear criteria and a consolidated federal immigration code. It wants faster recognition of foreign qualifications, access to dual citizenship and quicker naturalization for well-integrated people. Humanitarian protection and managed immigration are to be kept clearly separate.

The FDP says Germany is a country people immigrate to. There should be one law with clear rules for this. Degrees from other countries should be accepted faster. People should be able to hold two passports. Those who settle in very well should become citizens faster.

The FDP wants to extend integration programs to people moving in from other EU countries. It argues that many arrive unprepared and end up in precarious jobs, and that they do not use programs that cost money.

People from other EU countries may live and work in Germany. Many come unprepared and have poor jobs. The FDP wants to offer them free language courses. They should also get advice and integration courses.

The FDP wants people fleeing war or individual persecution to keep receiving protection in Germany. Refugees are to get early access to language and integration courses and to the labor market. Those who integrate especially well and support themselves financially should be able to switch from refugee status to regular immigration.

People fleeing war or persecution should get protection in Germany. Refugees should learn German and start working quickly. Those who are well integrated and earn their own money should be allowed to stay. This is called a change of track. Towns should get federal money for this.

The FDP calls for consistently returning people who neither qualify for protection nor meet the requirements of immigration law. Decisions on the right to stay are to be carried out quickly. Before someone is placed in pre-deportation custody, an electronic ankle monitor is to be considered first.

Some people have no right to protection in Germany. They also do not meet the rules for immigration. The FDP wants these people to leave the country. Instead of detention, an ankle monitor should be checked first. People who misuse welfare should face penalties.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

The SPD wants to expand special support for refugee women, above all those who have experienced violence. This includes mobile psychosocial consultations in shelters, information gathered in one place online and backing for self-help organizations.

Refugee women need special help. That is what the SPD says. It wants to strengthen consultation hours in shelters. Women should easily find information about their rights. Public offices should pay more attention to women's needs.

The SPD wants to declare Schleswig-Holstein a safe harbor in its first year in government and set up a flexible state admission program for refugees. Special programs for women and girls from conflict areas are to be added. It wants to show that the state is willing and able to take in people who are fleeing.

The SPD wants to take in more people who are fleeing. The state should declare itself a safe harbor. The state should have its own admission program. There should be special programs for women and girls from war zones.

The SPD wants to end deportation detention in the state and replace it with what it calls a humane return policy. Deportations to countries with armed conflicts are to be banned for as long as those conflicts last. Under the platform, no one seeking protection who has committed no crime should be detained.

Some people must leave Germany and are locked up first. The SPD wants to end this detention in the state. Nobody should be sent back to a country at war. Pregnant women should also be allowed to stay.

The SPD wants to use state money to pay for places in integration and job-related language courses for people who are not eligible under federal rules. This is meant to let newcomers learn German without waiting for months. In addition, the share of people with a migration background in the state's public service is to rise by 2030.

Some newcomers may not take a federal German course. The SPD wants the state to pay for places for them. There should be more courses in rural areas and online. More people with a migration background should work for the state.

The SPD wants a campaign to encourage more people to become citizens. In its view, citizenship means equal participation in politics and society and strengthens cohesion. It also commits to the goal of voting rights for all, because not everyone can be naturalized.

The SPD wants more people to get a German passport. A campaign should promote this. With a passport, people can take part in all decisions. The SPD also wants everyone living here to be allowed to vote.

The SSW wants people from countries outside the EU and stateless persons to be able to vote and run in local elections. The condition is that they live permanently in Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, municipalities should set up integration advisory councils.

Today, foreigners from countries outside the EU cannot vote in local elections. The SSW wants to change that. Anyone who lives permanently in Schleswig-Holstein should be allowed to vote. These people should also be able to run for office. Towns should get advisory councils for integration.

The SSW wants to set up a dedicated state ministry for integration and revise the Integrations- und Teilhabegesetz (Integration and Participation Act). Immigrants should find work more easily, learn German free of charge and have a political voice locally.

The SSW wants a separate ministry for integration. Integration means newcomers become a full part of society. They should learn German for free. They should find a job more easily. Towns should have advisory councils for integration.

The SSW rejects tightening asylum law and calls for a humanitarian right to stay that is set out in law. It opposes detention pending deportation and wants deportations halted during the winter months.

The SSW does not want stricter asylum law. Refugees should be able to get a firm right to stay. The SSW is against locking people up before deportation. No one should be deported in winter.

The SSW wants to let municipalities voluntarily take in more refugees than their quota requires. Refugees should get a legal entitlement to easily accessible support and free access to health services.

Towns should be allowed to take in more refugees if they want to. Refugees should have a right to counseling and mental health help. They should be able to see a doctor. A health card should make this possible. The federal government should pay more for this.

The SSW wants to promote exchange between cultures and religions in the state. It plans an intercultural round table, a cultural initiative with immigrants and support for joint projects by religious communities.

The SSW wants people from different cultures to talk more with each other. Religions should also exchange views. There should be a round table for cultural clubs. Religious communities should run projects together.