When you talk refugee status in Germany....you tend to get a brief and chaotic look by the typical German.
This week, there were some talks about how the region (Hessen) will handle the housing situation. On the table currently.....there's the Bundeswehr Army barracks in Fulda, which is supposed to be completely vacated by mid-summer of 2015 (one report says third-quarter, one media source said mid-summer). The talk from the political folks is that the barracks has moved up to choice number one, but folks around Fulda are not pleased with the discussion.
The three centers currently in operation around Hessen have reached maximum capacity (3,000). So the recent efforts have been to funnel some folks out to small towns and just force town councils to cook up some type of arrangement because there's just no more room.
Added to the chaos is the decision this week by Hessen's finance ministry to channel roughly 30 million Euro over to the refugee centers.....to make up for cash already used by the local communities of Giessen, Bad Arolsen and Kirchhain. What some political folks have said....it's simply not enough. Trying to find more loose capital in the state budget of Hessen is just about impossible at this point....without cutting into actual programs and allowances....thus getting just about everyone infuriated.
A month ago, the government put out a figure that they estimate for the full-year of 2014 in Germany.....of 300,000 refugees. The simple truth is....they just don't have the capacity to handle this type number, and it's likely to be just as many in 2015. The pressure on individual communities to cover basic life requirements? If you only get X amount of Euro to feed and house 300 refugees....then you figure food, heat, utilities, etc.....you come to the point where it's just a break-even point and you wonder what happens in two years? Disgruntled refugees sitting and thinking they were going to be on some mythical and magical deal with a real house, real job, and real lifestyle.
Folks around Fulda have to be concerned over the old military barracks turning into a refugee center, but then you look around Germany at dozens of US facilities in some stage of being turned over, and the locals are likely freaking out because they really don't want ownership at this point in time. It simply begs for creating a ghetto out of thin-air.
In essence, there simply never was a plan "A", and we've mostly wrapped up a marginal plan "B" for the situation, and probably already looking for a plan "C".
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