lFigures, facts, discourse and law: these are four key points to understanding the current tensions affecting German migration policy.
The numbers speak for themselves: Germany is a land of asylum. It welcomed 1.4 million Syrian migrants in 2015 and almost the same number of Ukrainians afterwards. In 2023, it will still be the leading European country in terms of registered asylum applications (more than 350,000, more than twice as many as France), with an increase of 50% compared to the previous year.
The facts are now being interpreted with more delicacy. In 2015, the slogan “ We are here to help you » (“We will do it!”) of Chancellor Angela Merkel had revealed to the world that Germany had adopted a policy of openness and welcome towards foreigners scarred by the war and that it was a power strong enough to “get there”.
However, the slogan has always been controversial in domestic politics and within its own coalition. Subsequently, sexual assaults by foreigners, especially in Cologne during the New Year of 2016, met with a resounding response from the population. This turning point should enable the far-right party Alternative for Germany to emerge from its insignificance and become a leading political force in the new Länder.
Safety measures
In recent times, events such as the knife attack by a Syrian that left three dead on 23 August in Solingen have been used to serve political agendas. Although statistically these are only a few cases, their resonance is now such that they can no longer be treated politically as tragic but isolated news.
The discourse has thus clearly evolved. The parties in the coalition government (Socialists, Greens and Liberals) are under even more pressure following the regional elections in September. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the far right came out on top in Thuringia, while the Christian Democrats won in Saxony – a setback for the current government, one year before the general elections.
In this context, and even though citizens took to the streets en masse in 2024 to protest against the far right, the discourse of firmness – and therefore of closure – prevails. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced and presented a “package” of security measures in immediate response to the Solingen attack, including the reduction of irregular migration.
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