2021

In its coalition agreement, the incoming German government of Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens has announced several important projects regarding immigration and asylum policies. The Ampelkoalition (‘traffic light coalition’, named after the colours used by the participating parties) wants to liberalise naturalisation, introduce a points system for job-hunting third country nationals, and considerably enhance the legalisation of irregular stay. In the field of return and asylum, however, the rhetoric is stronger than the substance. Most proposals remain vague, notwithstanding principled commitments to refugee protection and respect for legal obligations. Comments by Daniel Thym on the substance of the proposals can be found in an interview with the German daily DER SPIEGEL and in a contribution for the VERFASSUNGSBLOG (both in German). An English text with a focus on the international perpective was published on the Blog of the Odysseus Network ('Germany as a "Modern Country of Immigration". Projects of the New Government on Migration').