Immigration: the Church’s view ” “” “

The final vote on the law on immigration, approved on 1 March, is expected to take place in the Bundestag in Berlin on 22 March. We asked Katrin Gerdsmeier , of the Commission of German bishops of Berlin, to explain the Church’s position. What does the new law prescribe on the right of asylum and refugee status? “There will be a attempt to approximate more closely the legal position of the refugee according to the Geneva Convention and the position of the person who has a constitutional right to asylum. In Germany, as regards the protection of refugees, two important juridical institutions exist: one constitutional and the other conventional. The first is that of the asylum granted by provision of the German Constitution. The second is that of so-called ‘petty asylum’, which in practice is the transformation of protection from expulsion in conformity with the provisions of the Geneva Convention. These two juridical institutions are very different, because those who enjoy asylum under the Constitution are treated far better than those who have refugees status under the Geneva Convention. In future, however, the position of these latter will be improved.” What will the effects be in practice? “The consequences and the effects will be various, for example for work permits and for the right to be joined by members of the immigrant’s family. Hitherto refugees according to the Geneva Convention enjoyed a weak right to residence status: merely a temporary residence authorization. In future they will have the right to a regular residence permit, that in itself represents a better situation, and after three years will have the right to permanent residence status.” And what about the status of so-called “tolerance”? “Let’s take for instance the case of those who cannot be repatriated because their life would be in danger if they were to be sent home: according to the existing law, they enjoy a definite juridical position of ‘tolerance’. Although they have enjoyed no right to any kind of residence permit, they have hitherto been allowed to remain here because de facto they could not be repatriated. If a group of persons of this kind is told: I recognize your type of persecution according to the Geneva Convention, their insecurity diminishes considerably and this must be considered a very positive fact.” A controversial point is that of integration. What is the Church’s view on this? “We believe that the fact that the right to integration, and the provision of courses to facilitate integration, are sanctioned by the law is positive: in this way, someone who has to live here sees his right to integration recognized and promoted by the law, even though other measures are necessary too.” What will be the situation of clandestine immigrants? “For so-called illegal immigrants we have asked for improvements in social rights and also the right of those who assist them not to be liable to prosecution: that includes doctors, priests, social workers. We have asked for cast-iron guarantees that humanitarian assistance not be penally prosecutable either; unfortunately no such guarantee was given, and for that reason we are very critical.” What are the other requests made by the Church? “Another point we insisted on is the absolute protection from expulsion for young people who were born and grew up here in Germany: anyone who has lived here all his life, even if he does not have a German passport, must respond to the German penal law. One final thing we have at heart concerns those who have to be expatriated, persons who voluntarily would not otherwise leave the country. So to facilitate their forcible expulsion many of them are arrested. On this point many disputes and misunderstandings have arisen; just for this reason we have asked for improvements to the legislation”. Patrizia Collesi