Red-Green-Red coalition wants 20,000 naturalizations per year in Berlin

The quota for particularly needy refugees from trouble spots will be increased. Refugees should live in apartments instead of shared accommodation.

Berlin- The red-green-red coalition wants to greatly increase the number of naturalizations and bring more refugees to the city. The working group consisting of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party agreed on this in its negotiations for the future coalition agreement.

At the moment, around 7,000 people in Berlin received German citizenship every year, said Franziska Giffey (SPD), who wants to be elected mayor, on Monday evening. The goal is to naturalize 20,000 people per year in the next few years.

According to Giffey, 400,000 people have been living in Berlin for many years, "but they don't have one thing: and that is German citizenship". According to the coalition's ideas, naturalizations should in future be organized centrally in the hands of the state. In addition, the procedures are to be simplified and accelerated. Those concerned should receive a decision after just three months. So far, each district has handled naturalizations in its own way.

The three parties agree that Berlin should be a “cosmopolitan international metropolis”, but also a “city of refuge”. Whoever arrives in Berlin should also have easier communication with the authorities. The immigration authorities are to be given more support, and language and interpreting services are to be expanded in the city.

In the arrival center there should be an independent asylum procedure advice, said the state chairman of the Berlin Greens, Bettina Jarasch. “We want people to be able to live in the accommodations as soon as possible. We rely on more apartments, less communal accommodation.” An advisory board for migration should be established at the responsible senate administration, which gives recommendations to the responsible senate administrations on how the existing right of residence can be better used,“ in order to consolidate residence, to open up the prospect of remaining”.

The existing country program, which was already in place for the admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, is to be expanded to include Afghan refugees. In addition, in consultation with the UNHCR, the annual contingent of 100 people in particular need is to be increased, "so that Berlin can make a small contribution to helping the trouble spots around the world."

Katina Schubert (The Left) said that work permits “for people with a migration history” should be issued as soon as possible. “In the case of deportations, we have continued the paradigm shift that we initiated in the last legislature. We don't want families to be separated, to be deported from school and from hospitals and at night."

Source: Berliner Zeitung