Conservatives: Scale Back Immigration

Only 7 months after a landmark new immigration law came into force in Germany, the country’s conservatives are seeking to impose substantial curbs on the influx of foreigners.

Günther Beckstein, interior minister from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) in the state of Bavaria, said this weekend that Germany had not yet digested the wave of new immigrants who came here after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. He said calls for freer access to Germany were utterly wrong.

"We have not yet come to grips with the wave of immigration in the past decade," he said. "We are still struggling to integrate those immigrants already here, which requires a strong political effort and a willingness by immigrants to fully embrace this country."

Influx from former USSR

In the past 15 years, Germany has seen a dramatic influx of foreigners mainly from the former Soviet Union where ethnic Germans were allowed to emigrate after the collapse of communism there.

In the early 1990s, almost 200,000 Russians of German origin came here each year under laws giving them German citizenship automatically. They were people who have often found it difficult to adapt to Western life and culture.

The conservatives also aim to limit immigration of people from other countries who come to Germany under new immigration rules. The new laws, which were recently adopted with the support of the conservatives, allow for increased immigration to offset the demographic imbalances created by an ageing German population and dwindling birth rates.

But Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior Christian Democrat, says that the quality of immigrants will take precedence over quantity under a future conservative government.

"Some people claim we need even more immigration to be able to stabilize our social security systems," he said. "Such arguments overlook the fact that we need people who contribute to the system and don’t prove to be a drain on it as is currently the case."

Antiquated arguments

The suggestions about curbing immigration have drawn much criticism, especially from Germany’s Green party, which has been a champion of a more liberal immigration policy.

"Arguments suggesting Germany doesn’t need any more immigration and calling on German women to have more babies is absolutely antiquated," said Claudia Roth, chairwoman of the Green Party. "The conservatives have retrieved an old dusted hat from the cupboard of history which unfortunately fits their anti-immigration campaign platform."

However, the anti-immigration drive is only one of a series of controversial moves planned by Germany’s conservatives after a likely takeover of central power in Berlin.

Bolstered by an almost 20-point lead over the ruling SPD in the opinion polls, they’ve become bolder in their campaign, planning also a substantial overhaul of the tax system, which is expected to include reductions in income taxes and social contributions in exchange for scrapping some subsidies and hiking the value-added tax (VAT).