The war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee their country and settle in other countries in Europe. Germany and Austria are among the countries hosting the most refugees. If these countries are better prepared to welcome these refugees than in 2015, criticisms of the management of the migration issue are beginning to be heard.
Germany is better prepared for the arrival of refugees
Germany has welcomed more migrants since the start of 2022 than in 2015. The municipalities are sounding the alarm. Even if we are far from the chaotic scenes observed in 2015-2016, when a million refugees arrived from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. At a job fair, reserved for refugees, we met Tamara. This young woman arrived from kyiv in March 2022. She is one of the million Ukrainian refugees that Germany has welcomed since the Russian invasion. On this beautiful October day, this young marketing specialist went to the job fair specially organized in Berlin by the chamber of commerce and industry for refugees. Tamara would like to create her start-up. Her idea is “top secret”, says the young woman because her project is at the very beginning, and it is directly to the aid stand for start-up projects that she went to the show .
This job fair is one of the many signs that show that seven years later, Germany is significantly better prepared for the arrival of refugees than in 2015-2016. “It works much better, we are much better trained than in 2015explains Elanur, which helps Ukrainian women. At the time, we were ill-prepared for the arrival of this very large number of refugees, especially here in Berlin. But now, the Ukrainian refugees have the direct right to work, immediately receive language lessons, they immediately have residence permits… For the moment, it is working very well.”
The Ukrainians quickly benefited from the temporary protection status of the European Union. Everything is going faster for them than with the Syrians, Iraqis or Afghans in 2015. A frustrating situation for all those who helped the refugees of 2015. “To be honest, we have a lot less work with Ukrainian refugees than with otheradmits Nora Bretzger, who has worked since 2011 as a volunteer with migrants, because they were given so many rights from the outset. When someone arrives and has a direct residence permit, direct access to the housing market, direct access to the labor market, we associations don’t have to fight so much. Which is bittersweet in a way, because we see that all the claims we had, in fact, it’s possible. It’s just that there was no political will.” But if the situation is for the moment less chaotic than in 2015, everything could quickly deteriorate. Already, municipalities are worried. Everywhere, housing is lacking for the new arrivals, and again, sports halls are transformed into emergency homes.
In Austria, tents to accommodate asylum seekers as in 2015
In recent days, large white tents have been set up in several Austrian regions. It is a decision of the eco-conservative government, which it justifies by the growing number of arrivals of asylum seekers. From January to September 2022, 72,000 asylum applications were submitted in Austria, according to the Ministry of the Interior, almost three times more than during the same period in 2021. The government explains that the fixed reception structures are saturated and therefore imposed these tents on regions which did not meet their quota for receiving asylum seekers. The regions concerned strongly oppose this measure, but the government does not intend to back down, as Interior Minister Gerhard Karner explained earlier this week: “We have chosen this solution in order to prevent young men from seeking shelter on their own. These tents are intended to accommodate, when necessary, young men coming from countries which offer almost no chance of obtain asylum, such as India, Tunisia or Morocco.” In some areas, the tents are already occupied.
The Conservatives, the majority in the government, intend to defend a hard line on the migration issue. Chancellor Karl Nehammer himself took part in a migration summit in early October alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He then denounced the failure of the European Union’s asylum policy and said that he wanted to strengthen cooperation with Hungary and Serbia to fight against illegal immigration. A position that is not firm enough in the eyes of the far right. In recent days, the FPÖ has invited itself into the debates by criticizing the installation of tents and the government’s migration policy, demanding, instead, the immediate suspension of the right of asylum. For their part, refugee aid associations are also trying to make themselves heard. They sent an open letter to the government, in which they denounce the installation of these tents as an inhuman and avoidable solution. We are not going through a refugee crisis, warn the NGOs, but “a housing crisis”which the government could easily remedy.