How migrants in Germany see AfD’s remigration plan

More than 300,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Munich to protest the controversial Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) plan of remigration, which aims to extradite all those who are “non-assimilated” into the German culture, whether migrants, asylum seekers or even citizens. The protest is another in a large wave of anti-AfD demonstrations calling for a ban of the party in the country, where 18% of its population (84.6 million) are migrants.

One of the factors making Germany’s economy strong among other Western countries is the country’s diversity from migration. Jusoor Post spoke with migrants, who affirmed that such a plan is inapplicable and would make the economy collapse, calling for reform in Germany’s current system of dealing with migrants. 

Egyptian researcher and career coach Sara Hegy, founder of the GenX Leadership Academy in Berlin who was been awarded the Rictzenhain Doctoral Prize in cancer research, told Jusoor Post that the AfD’s anti-immigration plan would not be in Germany's best interest in the long term.

“The German system became flawed and full of performance breakdowns in recent years,” adding that “the German system became almost completely unable to accommodate the diversity of individuals to whom equal opportunities are opened.”

She noted that the absence basic needs, like obtaining residency for skilled and successful individuals struggling to find long-term accommodation, impedes their success and activity in the country’s economy. 

“I know hundreds of people living in camps and eagerly waiting to contribute to the society […] but they struggle to integrate because they don’t speak German,” she explained, adding that the lack of flexibility in the German system makes it “hard to embrace the large number of migrants and put them in the right places and match them with the right opportunities for them.”

Hegy said that many migrants remain stuck in their circumstances for years, so their lives become stalled and their psychology deteriorates, which affects their performance and degree of contribution to the German society. 

She added that highly skilled migrants who arrived in Germany for a better future are required to study the German language for at least one or two years just to work in the country, even in highly competitive sectors in which Germany needs workers. 

“So, some people stumble in their career progress and integration because they find challenges in learning the language,” she said, adding, “I was one of them. The first time I worked with the German language was 11 years after my stay in Germany.”

Germany was seen by most immigrants in the past as the safest place where people could seek better lives and opportunities, but the difficult living conditions and the maze of paperwork for migrants made Germany an unattractive place, Hegy continued, calling upon the German authorities to make balanced decisions “to solve the actual current challenges and to ensure that the German work environment remains highly attractive to highly successful immigrants from around the world.”

“We need a strong strategy that helps migrants who have the ambition to work even without fluency in the German language,” she said, adding that Germany is in need of more than 70,000 specialists in the IT sector annually to fill the gap in the local market.

Nour Ojali, a Syrian refugee who fled the war in Syria, said that the AfD plan is merely a means to pressure the pro-migration government, adding that the migrants are not afraid of being deported back because they know that would be impossible. 

“It is just intimidating and pressuring refugees. The plan speaks about all foreigners, like Turkish or Italians. So, the situation is inapplicable on the ground […] as Germany needs 20,000 workers annually to preserve its economy,” she continued. 

Ojali noted that about 13 million foreigners are living in Germany and most of them are working, adding, “So, if they were deported back to their homelands, the German economy would collapse.” 

“However, there could be more restrictions on the migrants in terms of job opportunities, reducing the monthly allowances, or taking some punitive measures for some migrants, but remigration is ruled out,” she said.