Challenges and Solutions in 2015

Challenges and decisions

Despite the enormous willingness of the German population to help, the immigration rate presented the whole country with new challenges and brought social, political and legal structures to their limits. For an initial overview, some of these are described below 1. The measures were all implemented between 2015 and 2017.

A comprehensive description of all problems, measures and regulations, as well as any changes to date, can also be found on the website of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
Border control
Insight: challenges
  • overload for border control authorities
  • partly unauthorized, uncontrolled entry with subsequent protection seekers
Insight: measures
  • personnel reinforcement
  • 50 asylum seekers per hour, spread over five border crossings for controlled transfer
  • partial provision of emergency accommodation directly at the border crossing point
Emergency accommodation & first reception facilities
Insight: challenges
  • capacity constraints in the initial reception facilities of the states
  • lengthy approval processes for the construction of new buildings
  • lack of cooperation between countries and unclear legal basis
  • health risks due to long waiting times after crossing the border
  • high burden on youth welfare offices due to high numbers of unaccompanied young people
  • overstress and frustration among volunteers
  • overloading of the municipalities during subsequent allocation of accommodation
Insight: measures
  • reform of the construction planning law to facilitate accommodation
  • cooperation between federal states to accommodate asylum seekers made possible
  • establishment of two waiting centers for initial registration and accommodation for 72 hours and for better organization of distribution
  • reorganization of the distribution of unaccompanied minors
  • extension of the maximum duration of stay in initial reception establishments
  • development and construction of hundreds of emergency shelters by the federal states
  • establishment of full-time volunteer coordinators
Infrastructure, Personnel & Responsibilities
Insight: challenges
  • Overloading the redistribution of asylum seekers in Bavaria, where the highest immigration figures were measured
  • Thousands of BAMF field offices were lacking for application acceptance and processing as well as for the performance of other tasks (e.g. to recruit qualified personnel in a short period of time).
  • Overburdening the foreigners authorities (regional differences in distribution)
  • Overloading of police forces of the states and the Federal Police
  • lack of personnel in other institutions (e.g. schools, youth welfare offices…)
Insight: measures
  • The Federal Government takes over the transport coordination of newly arriving persons seeking protection to other federal states.
  • Creation of new services at BAMF
  • BAMF hires thousands of new employees; workforce grows from 2100 full-time equivalents (2014) to 7400 full-time equivalents (2017)
  • Creation of new BAMF qualification centers in Nuremberg
  • Foreigners authorities to be supported by federal employees
  • Welfare Associations hire new employees
  • Police are reinforced by additional personnel
Integration measures before the end of the asylum procedure
Insight: challenges
  • Delayed access to integration courses due to delays in asylum application and processing, as well as the general exclusion of asylum applicants from integration measures
  • Scheduling and general coordination difficulties due to unconnected needs and offers
  • Late access to the labor market due to delays in applications and processing
  • Lack of clarity in access to universities for asylum seekers
  • High demand for psychological and therapeutic care
  • Welfare organizations and other organizations are reaching their limits
Insight: measures
  • Opening of integration courses for asylum seekers with good prospects of staying before the end of the asylum procedure
  • Opening up the ESF-BAMF program for vocational language support from level B1, provided that the conditions for access to the labor market are met.
  • Opening of community-based integration courses for young and adult asylum seekers with good prospects of staying in the country
  • Admission of additional integration courses (400 new integration courses were admitted between 2015 and 2016)
  • Earlier access to the labor market for asylum seekers; skilled workers with a residence permit may already work as temporary workers after 3 months
  • Recording of master data and qualifications of asylum seekers already at the end of the application and registration process
  • Acceleration and expansion of the BAMF’s professional language courses and granting access for applicants with good prospects of staying in Germany
  • Expansion of the regular services for psychotherapeutic treatment, in particular also by welfare associations
  • Promotion of the sponsorship program „People empower people“ for successful integration

Footnotes

  1. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge(2018): Die veränderte Fluchtmigration in den Jahren 2014 bis 2016: Reaktionen und Maßnahmen in Deutschland. Janne Grote 2018 [online] http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Publikationen/EMN/Studien/wp79-emn-fluchtmigration-2014-2016-reaktionen-ma%C3%9Fnahmen-deutschland.pdf?__blob=publicationFile [14.12.2018]

Project Partners

Casework is a cooperation between the Innovation in Learning Institute (ILI), the ECC Association for Interdisciplinary Consulting and Education, the INTRGEA Institute for Development of Human Potentials, and Oxfam Italy. More info…