What do the parties in Thuringia say on migration and integration?

The AfD wants to abolish Thuringia's health card for asylum seekers. People whose claims are rejected or not recognized would receive emergency care only. The platform justifies this with the cost to the state budget and to insured people.

Asylum seekers in Thuringia have a health card. The AfD wants to end this card. Rejected asylum seekers would only get care in an emergency. The AfD says the card costs too much money.

The AfD wants a change of course in asylum policy and a needs-based immigration law modeled on Japan. Asylum should be reserved for people who are actually politically persecuted. The platform calls the multicultural society a wrong path that it wants to end.

The AfD wants to change asylum policy. Only politically persecuted people should get asylum. Only people the country needs should immigrate. Japan is the model for this. The borders should be fully secured.

The AfD wants to enforce the obligation to leave the country through a state-level deportation initiative. This includes deportation flights organized by Thuringia itself, a deportation detention facility, and separate housing for asylum seekers with a record of violence.

The AfD wants to deport more people. To deport means the state makes people without a right to stay leave. Thuringia should organize its own flights for this. There should also be a detention center for deportations.

The AfD wants to abolish Thuringia's hardship commission because, in the party's view, it unlawfully lets people who are required to leave stay on. Church asylum would also no longer be tolerated, and groups that support it would lose public funding.

Thuringia has a hardship commission. It can let people stay in special cases. The AfD wants to abolish this commission. The AfD also wants to stop tolerating church asylum. Groups that help with such things should get no money from the state.

The AfD wants to sharply lower the standard of provision and housing for asylum seekers in order to make migration into the welfare system unattractive. Benefits in kind and shared accommodation would be the rule, and the health card would be scrapped.

The AfD wants to give asylum seekers less. They should mostly get goods instead of money. They should live in shared housing. The health card should go. Doctors should only help in emergencies and with pain.

For refugees and low-skilled migrants, the AfD wants to preserve their ability to return home rather than focus on integration. The party argues that integration often fails for lack of willingness and of the necessary preconditions.

The AfD thinks integration often does not work. Integration means newcomers become part of society. So the AfD wants many migrants to leave again soon. Courses should teach them things they need back home.

The AfD wants to allow family reunification only for a few groups, arguing that it is used as a route into the welfare system. The conditions would be language skills and a job that also supports the relatives.

Family reunification means relatives may follow someone to Germany. The AfD wants to allow this only rarely. People who want to bring family should have learned German. They should also have a job and support the family themselves.

The AfD demands that the age of all unaccompanied refugees who claim to be minors be determined using approved methods. The party rejects the objection that X-raying the hand violates human dignity.

Some young refugees arrive without parents. The AfD wants to check the age of all of them. This can be done with an X-ray of the hand, for example. The AfD thinks that is reasonable.

The BSW wants to control and limit migration, by its own account without discrimination. Anyone who breaks the law should have to leave the country. The party affirms the right to asylum, puts integration first and ties intake to the state's capacity.

The BSW wants less immigration. Immigration should be controlled. People who commit crimes should have to leave Germany. The right to asylum should stay. The party cares about migrants fitting in well.

The BSW wants to stop what it calls uncontrolled migration. Asylum applications should be filed and decided at the EU's external borders and in third countries. Only people granted protection should receive support and social benefits in Germany.

The BSW wants less immigration. Asylum claims should be checked outside Germany. This should happen at the EU's outer borders. Or in other countries outside the EU. Only people with protection should get money here.

The BSW wants to systematically ensure that people required to leave, those without residence status, and migrants who commit crimes leave the country. Asylum seekers obliged to leave should receive only the constitutionally required subsistence minimum, as in-kind benefits. A payment card should make transfers abroad harder.

Some people must leave Germany. The BSW wants them to actually leave. Criminals should be deported. People who must leave should get goods, not cash. A payment card should make sending money abroad harder.

The BSW wants foreign qualifications recognized when they match German standards, followed by prompt work permits. Asylum seekers should take on simple jobs while their case is pending. This is meant to ease the burden on social systems and help integration.

The BSW wants immigrants to start working sooner. Foreign degrees should be accepted more easily. They must match German standards. Asylum seekers should do simple jobs early on.

Together with chambers and trade associations, the CDU wants to recruit skilled workers from outside the EU in a targeted way. Skilled immigration is to be separated organizationally from asylum migration, and a Central Immigration Office is to serve as a single point of contact.

The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from other countries to Thuringia. The state should help more with this. Procedures for skilled workers should be faster. They should run separately from asylum procedures. One central office should serve companies and skilled workers.

The CDU sees successful integration as integration into the labor market. Foreign vocational and university qualifications are to be recognized faster and with less red tape, and immigrants should be able to work while still attending a language course.

The CDU wants immigrants to be able to work sooner. Diplomas from other countries should be recognized faster. There should be more German courses. People should be allowed to work while they take a language course.

The CDU wants a strict distinction between asylum and immigration. Those entitled to protection are to receive help, but protection is to be temporary and normally end with a return home. Anyone without grounds for protection or who breaks the rules is to leave the country immediately.

The CDU wants to separate asylum from immigration. People who need protection should get help. But protection should only last for a time. After that, people should return to their home country. Anyone with no reason for protection should leave right away.

The CDU wants to create a central immigration authority within the state administration office to manage reception and returns and relieve municipalities. People with no prospect of staying are to be housed in central facilities and deported directly from there, instead of being distributed to counties and towns.

The CDU wants to create one central office for foreigners. It should organize reception and deportation. People who may not stay should go to a central facility. They should be deported directly from there. Towns should have less work this way.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for countries of origin to receive money and visas only if they take back their citizens. In addition, more countries are to be classified as safe countries of origin, and asylum cases with little chance of success are to be processed faster.

Some countries do not take back their citizens after a deportation. The CDU wants these countries to get no money and no visas then. More countries should count as safe. Asylum cases with little chance of success should go faster.

The CDU wants to reduce incentives for irregular entry. Newly arriving Ukrainians would no longer receive Bürgergeld (citizen's income) but would first get the lower asylum-seeker benefits. Thuringia would no longer run its own admission programs.

The CDU wants fewer incentives to come to Germany. New refugees from Ukraine should not get Bürgergeld anymore. Bürgergeld is the basic income support in Germany. They should get the same benefits as asylum seekers. Thuringia should have no admission programs of its own.

The CDU wants asylum seekers in reception centers and shared accommodation to receive only in-kind benefits. In addition, a payment card would be introduced across Thuringia. The party says this is meant to stop social benefits from being sent to countries of origin.

Asylum seekers in shelters should no longer get cash. They should get things like food and clothes directly. There should also be a payment card in all of Thuringia. People can shop with the card but cannot take out cash.

The CDU wants to promote the integration of people with a migration background who live lawfully in Thuringia, while making it more binding. Anyone receiving benefits would have to sign a personal integration agreement. Community work placements for asylum seekers would be expanded.

The CDU wants to support integration and set firm rules for it. People who get money from the state should sign an integration agreement. Asylum seekers should do more community work. The offers should focus on language, education, work and everyday life.

The CDU wants immigrants to have to live in Germany longer again before they can become citizens. In the party's view, naturalization comes at the end of successful integration, not at its beginning.

The CDU wants stricter rules for the German passport. People should live in Germany longer again before they get it. The CDU says: integration comes first, then the passport.

The CDU wants asylum procedures to be completed entirely in central facilities at the EU's external borders or in countries neighboring Europe. Frontex is to become a border police and coast guard with sovereign powers.

The CDU wants asylum claims checked at the EU's outer border. Only people who are accepted should then come to Germany. All others should be turned back at the border. The EU agency Frontex should get more staff and more powers.

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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 SPD wants EU citizens who live permanently in Thuringia to be able to vote in state and federal elections as well. People from non-EU countries with permanent residence are to be given the right to vote in local elections.

Many people without a German passport have lived in Thuringia for a long time. The SPD wants to give them more voting rights. People from EU countries should vote for the state and federal parliament. People from other countries should be allowed to vote in their town or city.

The SPD sees immigration as an opportunity to counter demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers. It wants to ease refugees' path into work, make it easier to recognize foreign qualifications, and speed up procedures together with the federal government.

The SPD says: immigration helps Thuringia because workers are missing. Refugees should be allowed to work more easily. There should be more language courses for jobs. Degrees from abroad should be recognized more easily. People who need protection should get asylum in Thuringia.

The SPD wants language courses, integration and training programs to be available to all immigrants, regardless of their country of origin or their prospects of being allowed to stay. The platform sees language as the precondition for taking part in society. It also wants simpler handling of family reunification and easier work permits for people with tolerated status.

The SPD wants language courses for all immigrants. It should not matter where someone comes from. It should not matter if someone may stay. People with tolerated status should get work permits more easily. Families should be able to join them more easily.

The SPD commits to the humanitarian reception of refugees in Thuringia and wants binding minimum standards for shelters that apply statewide. Everyone is to be treated fairly and with dignity, regardless of their chances in the asylum process.

The SPD wants Thuringia to take in refugees. Everyone should be treated fairly. Shelters should follow the same rules everywhere. The rules should make sure people live in dignity. Sick and very vulnerable people should get special help.

The SPD wants to create a state office for migration and integration that brings expertise together in one place. According to the platform, this should also help attract skilled workers to the labor market. Municipal immigration offices are to become integration and service agencies.

The SPD wants a new office for migration and integration. The expert knowledge should be in one place. This should also help find skilled workers. Local immigration offices should offer more service. They should help people settle in.

The SPD wants to coordinate the recruitment of skilled workers from abroad through one central body and will develop the Thuringian agency for skilled-worker recruitment for this purpose. Qualifications are to be recognized more easily. State subsidies for recruitment are to go only to companies with a collective agreement and integration programs.

Thuringia needs more skilled workers. The SPD wants to bring in skilled workers from abroad. One central office should organize this. Foreign degrees should be accepted more easily. Only companies with a collective wage agreement get state money.

The SPD wants to simplify the rules on entry, residence and registration for students and researchers from abroad, including through federal initiatives. Graduates are to get more time after finishing their degree to find a job or take the next step in their academic qualification.

The SPD wants to make things easier for students from other countries. This also applies to researchers. The rules for entering and staying should become simpler. After graduating, they should have more time to look for work.