Germany > Overview

last update: May 2011

Usually refugees or non-EU migrants are able to  obtain temporary or permanent residence in Germany by applying for asylum or marriage. It’s more or less impossible – except for a few highly qualified experts and specialists – to get papers concluding a labour contract.

Police controls are quite common on trains and in stations and inner cities, nevertheless tens of thousands of undocumented migrants live and work, mainly with the support of their communities, in big cities. Assistance is also given by a lot of medical help projects or other advice centres/services run by antiracist groups, NGOs or unions, and by self-organised groups of migrants. Most of these projects are open for documented as well as for undocumented migrants.

Everyone without papers who is apprehended by the police has the right to apply for asylum. And usually s/he should not be arrested or detained for a longer time. Asylum applications have to be directed to reception centres. The first asylum interview is crucial for the whole procedure, and should be prepared very well.

There is no guarantee that you can remain in the place/city of the asylum application as the allocation of accommodation is dependent on a Germany-wide distribution system. All asylum seekers have to live in camps at first, often in isolated places, and without the right to work in the first year and on minimum benefits (i.e. benefits in kind like food packages, or benefit money). A lawyer has to be paid by the asylum seeker him- or herself. The duration of an asylum procedure is incalculable. Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes 1 or 2 years. For some groups of refugees (coming from war zones or dictatorships) the chance to get full asylum or at least subsidiary protection status is not too bad, but of course it depends on the individual case and the preparation! Refugees and migrants who, for one reason or other, cannot be deported will get the very precarious status of toleration (“Duldung”). Regularisation processes in Germany have been limited to particular groups with years of toleration. No legalisation of undocumented migrants has ever taken place.

The detention and deportation system is well organised, the German bureaucracy puts a lot of energy into trying to kick refugees and migrants out of the country, not avoiding any costs, for example by utilizing charter deportation flights. Never trust the foreigners’ offices (“Ausländeramt”), better to be escorted by friends or supporters, if the status is not safe!

More details see: http://w2eu.info/germany.en.html