New integration draft bill requires refugees to learn German

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition has agreed on the new integration draft bill, requiring refugees residing in the Western European state to learn German language and seek work or see their benefits cut.

After hours of discussions on Thursday, Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), their conservative Bavarian CSU allies and the Social Democrats (SPD) hammered out an agreement for the country's first-ever integration legislation.

Along with language learning, the draft bill says that those refugees who break off job training courses will also lose benefits.

Merkel said the initiative, which will be formally approved by her cabinet on May 24, contains “an offer for everyone, but also duties for everyone.”

She further noted that the refugee crisis has posed two challenges to Germany, including the coordination of the influx of asylum seekers with the country’s European partners and the registration as well as integration of the new arrivals.

“We will have a German national law on integration - this is the first time in post-war Germany that this has happened, it is an important, qualitative step,” she added.

However, PRO ASYL, Germany's largest pro immigration advocacy organization, criticized controversial provisions included in the integration bill.

Penalizing people for not participating in integration courses incorrectly “encourages the prejudice that refugees don’t want to integrate,” PRO ASYL head Gunter Burkhardt said, noting that the problem was insufficient language lectures.

Meanwhile, members of the three coalition partners worked out new counter-terrorism measures amid rising threats of terrorist attacks across Europe.

The measures include granting more powers to law enforcement to deploy undercover agents, as well as empowering Germany’s intelligence agencies to exchange information with foreign partners under clear conditions.

Germany opened its borders to the refugees last summer with a welcoming mood, but it gradually shifted away from the policy and now Merkel stresses that the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country needs to be reduced.

As one of the most popular destinations for refugees, the country registered about 1.1 million refugees between January and December 2015. The country is expecting 2.5 million more to arrive over the next five years.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

More than 173,700 asylum seekers have reached Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 720 people died in their journey to the continent, according to the latest figures by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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