What is the goal of the traffic light in migration policy?

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Horst Seehofer, Nancys Faeser's predecessor in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, still had a hard time with the term "country of immigration".

There is an explicit commitment to this in the traffic light coalition agreement.

The goal of the three parties is a "fresh start" in migration and integration policy, which should do justice to "a modern immigration country".

Migration should be designed in a forward-looking and realistic manner, regular migration should be made possible and irregular migration reduced.

The traffic light describes this duality as a “paradigm shift”, although there are even quotes from Seehofer that sound very similar.

What projects are on the way?

As far as concrete initiatives are concerned, there is a considerable difference from the previous government.

Although she has taken a first step towards the so-called lane change, which creates permeability between the asylum system and labor migration.

But the right of residence goes well beyond that.

It is to be passed in the second and third readings in the Bundestag on Friday.

The changes to the immigration of skilled workers have not yet progressed that far.

Here, too, the traffic light goes beyond the liberalization of the grand coalition.

On Wednesday, the cabinet decided on the key points, and on this basis a draft law is now being drawn up in the Federal Ministry of Labor.

The third issue to be debated this week is changes in citizenship law.

The draft law from the Federal Ministry of the Interior is still in the early stages of coordination, so it has not yet been sent to the other departments for approval.

But this should happen shortly.

A draft is currently circulating and has been leaked to the media.

What is the right of residence?

This new residence permit aims to solve the problem of chain toleration, so well-integrated foreigners who have been living in Germany for several years without a secure status should benefit.

Anyone who has been tolerated or permitted for five years on October 31, 2022 or lives with a residence permit and has not committed a criminal offense should, according to the plans of the traffic light, receive a title for 18 months in order to meet the missing requirements for a long-term residence permit - that are, among other things, knowledge of German and securing one's own livelihood.

The prerequisite is a commitment to the free democratic basic order, people who prevent their deportation due to repeated, intentional false information or active identity deception should be excluded.

What should change for professionals?