Wednesday, May 10, 2023

What Is This German Refugee 'Summit' All About?

 Basically, the sixteen German states (and associated cities) have an ongoing financial problem where the cost of handling migrant/refugees....is reaching a crisis level.  

Part of this....you can blame on the Ukraine-Russia war (1-million Ukrainians in Germany presently), and part of this is the friendly manner where failed applicants linger on and have a cost factor.  You can also lay out blame on states for being stuck with deporting failed applicants, but finding delay upon delay to carry out deportations.  Finally, you can bring up the serious cost factor of handling folks....possibly for two or three years while in language class, integration class, and job training.  

What the summit is supposed to achieve?  States want a chunk of money.  The state suggest in some fashion...that the calculation method here that the fed folks use....is crapped-up.  From my personal view.....the folks in Berlin have generally made it obvious that they have no real idea of what it costs to manage a group of refugees.

Since January?  Well....the gov't says around 29,000 Syrians have arrived in Germany, and are in some present status.  With Afghans in Germany since January?  Roughly 20,000.  Iranians?  4,700.  Russians?  3,500.  

What to expect out of this meeting?  Mostly nothing.  

There is a suggestion that Scholz may try to get the EU to take some of these folks.....I suspect that will fail because no one wants to match the support/funding that Germans typically hype-up.

What Germany paid (nationally) in 2022 for refugee support?  Almost 30-billion Euro (for support, housing, language classes, help, etc).  

All of this chatter in a negative sense...eroding support for the SPD-Green-FDP coalition?  Well....yeah, there is this odd problem brewing.

Some Germans (probably less than a quarter) think the whole program is out-of-whack, and there's a tremendous amount of money being spent here....rather than on the down-and-out or welfare class of Germany.  They have a point to openly discuss.  But this brings up the AfD Party, and how their numbers have been going up lately in polls.

So in the end....this summit....is mostly about 'nothing' and delivers 'nothing' as a solution?  Yeah, and you can't spin this in any fashion without laughing.

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