"Promote and Demand"

There's been a meeting to occur with German political figures....mostly from the CDU and SPD....to wrap up the draft to a new immigrant law for Germany.

When you hear the expression "Fördern und Fordern", that refers to the law, which translates roughly into "Promote and Demand."

Within the draft, there are a couple of interesting items.

For example, the Berlin-draft says that benefits will be established.  So state assistance won't be differing from state to state.

The draft law also will say that if you are a refugee in a yet-to-be approved status for permanent visa....you will be able to work in areas of Germany where unemployment is low (something that doesn't happen currently).  How they define these areas of unemployment wasn't explained and I suspect that this will be pushed to the extreme.

There is a piece within the draft which says that an immigrant must learn German and make enough money to support themselves.  It's not clear about the threshold to "enough money" but maybe this has something to do with immigrants asking for welfare treatment and they can use this request to send the immigrant back to his home-country.

The draft also has a line or two which suggests that the German government will be able to direct to a particular state or region, where they must stay during this entire process.

If you had some relatives in Stuttgart and wanted that as your preferred settlement area.....well, you might not be approved.

There's also the ability to use this text to settle people into rural areas, rather than urbanized areas (a current problem with housing).

Fixing the issues and getting the negativity off their door-step?  Not really.  Maybe if they'd done this back in the spring of 2015.....they'd be ahead of the ballgame and impress people.

The legality of forcing an immigrant to a particular area or away from his preferred choice?  I'm guessing it'll be challenged in court.  Perhaps it'll stand judicial review, and survive.

As for the push to rural areas?  That's the only way that the housing crisis won't explode over the next five years.  If you go to Frankfurt or any of the top twenty cities in Germany.....there's a major problem with affordable housing.  It's a trend that's been going on for a decade.  There's a very limited amount of action going on to remedy this, and the suggestion that you could allow 10,000 more immigrants to arrive in Frankfurt over the next two years....would bring some heartburn to the locals who already have problems with housing.

Jobs in the rural areas?  No.  It's curious how they structured this because if you get forced into the rural areas of Germany.....find no job.....you get removed eventually (at least by the word of this draft).

My sentiment is that this draft law won't really fix much, but it deflects the public frustrations for six months and gives the political leadership in Berlin to say that they've been working on fixing the issues.

And if they slip back to one million immigrants arriving yearly in Germany?  That's really part of the frustration of the public....there are no limits.