(Article for the Model of the Council of the European Union)
According to the Statistisches
Bundesamt, “immigration to Germany was higher than ever before” during the
recent years. In 2015, for example, a total 2,137,000 people immigrated to the
country, representing an increase of 672,000 arrivals, or +46% in comparison to
2014.
With this data, it is possible to
wonder whether the legislation is up to date regarding the arrival and stay of
people who are seeking for asylum in the Republic as it is important for
strengthening Germany’s best interests to have a common policy with the rest of
the members because it is a “constituent part of the European Union’s objective
of establishing progressively an area of freedom, security and justice open to
those who, force by circumstances, legitimately seek protection in the Union”,
as said in the Directive 2013/32/EU.
A recent inform from the
International Monetary Fund exalts that “the new wave of immigration under way
in Germany is rapidly changing: while it initially reflected mainly immigrants
from new EU accession countries and, to a smaller extent, Southern Europe, the
wave now consists to a large extent of asylum seekers from outside of the EU.” The
report also establishes that from 2010 to 2015, the immigration from outside
the EU became higher in comparison to the one within.
In the context where 476,000 asylum
applications were registered in 2015, it is imperative to add that among many
members of the European Union, Germany is one of the most welcoming countries
as the authorities decided to suspend the so-called Dublin Protocol, an
agreement that forces refugees to seek asylum in the first European country in
which they set foot.
Following the purpose of the
country’s willingness to “fulfill its historical and humanitarian obligation to
admit refugees” –as said by the Federal Ministry of the Interior– and the fact
that Germans agree with the idea of transforming into a country of immigrants
(a Bertelsmann Stiftung’s survey specified that 80% of the people said that
their authorities should accept people escaping from political or religious
persecution), the Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to push drafts and
legislations that follows the idea of a strong country available to help the
ones in need.
Despite every effort, the crisis is
far from finishing as every country must collaborate to establish common
procedures for granting –and withdrawing– international protection. It can be
said that Germany is now the face of the well-intended refugee policy but in an
important Union as the European’s one –with all the changes and differences
among their countries’ perspectives–, it must be asked “how long can it hold it
by itself?”
