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IMMIGRATION

How one German immigration office plans to tackle long waiting times

For years, the Darmstadt Immigration Office or Ausländerbehörde has been criticised for poor accessibility and chaotic conditions. Last week, the city’s mayor presented a new plan that could finally solve the problem. What could other cities learn?

Published: 25 July 2022 15:51 CEST
A staff member at a Hamburg immigration office helps a member of the public.
A staff member at a Hamburg immigration office helps a member of the public. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jonas Walzberg

The city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt in southwest Germany is home to three universities and around 35,000 international residents. In fact, national statistics from 2020 show that internationals make up 20,5 percent of the population in the city.

It’s little wonder then, that problems with the Ausländerbehörder (the international immigration offices) have been widely reported as negatively impacting lots of foreign residents in the city. 

Determined to combat the issues once and for all, last week the city’s Mayor, Jochen Partsch (Greens) presented a new concept for restructuring the service.

What are the problems?

Darmstadt’s immigration office has had a bad reputation for years, due to long waiting times, and problems getting hold of staff or arranging appointments. According to local immigration lawyers, the processing of applications for naturalization currently takes around two years.

READ ALSO: ‘Nothing is easy’: How foreigners struggle to get settled in Germany

There have been numerous reports of foreign residents being unable to renew expired residence permits due to the impossibility of getting hold of the authorities. A report by the German regional news site Hessenschau.de from February included an account of a student calling over 80 times, even during office hours, and never getting a response.

Immigration and asylum lawyer, Sonja Plückebaum, who is based in Darmstadt, said: “We have clients who have lost their apprenticeship or job because they did not get their residence permit extended in time.” Major problems also often arise when people are looking for an apartment or signing a mobile phone contract.

What’s causing the problems?

City officials have claimed that the problems with the immigration office ultimately come down to staffing and workload.

For some time now, there has been a high level of staff turnover and an above-average level of sick leave among employees at the immigration office.

The city’s former Mayor, Rafael Reißer, said earlier in the year that the loss of experienced workers had led to a “continuous reduction” in expertise, while, at the same time, work had piled up. New employees in particular were plagued by “self-doubt and insecurity” due to the “daily pressure to perform,” which in most cases led to them resigning.

READ ALSO: Germany ranked as ‘worst country in the world’ for expat needs

These issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 

An application for a residence permit lies on a desk at the Foreigners' Registration Office in Baden-Württemberg.

An application for a residence permit lies on a desk at the Foreigners’ Registration Office in Baden-Württemberg. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Wolfram Kastl

What are the new plans?

The first step will be to set up a service team to coordinate the allocation of appointments and be the first point of contact for all issues, to help tackle the problems with reaching staff at the immigration office.

New specialised teams will be put together, which will deal with specific areas affecting foreign residents, such as education, employment and resident rights. 

The electronic filing system in the immigration office is also being fast-tracked and should be operational by the autumn, which will help speed up workflows.

The city also announced 12 new full-time positions to be filled as soon as possible.

The new organisation will also help reduce the workload for individual employees, he said: “All the measures taken now will add up to ensure that people will once again receive the comprehensive service they deserve.”

READ ALSO: Berlin to revolutionise immigration office ‘experience’

Useful vocabulary:

immigration office – (die) Ausländerbehörde

residence permit – (die) Aufenthaltserlaubnis

waiting time – (die) Wartezeit

to reach someone by phone – jemanden telefonisch erreichen

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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For members

GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

Foreigners in Germany are waiting on tenterhooks for the introduction of the new dual nationality law on Thursday - but the centre-right CDU and CSU say they would overturn the reform if re-elected next year.

Published: 25 June 2024 12:06 CEST
German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

“The CDU and CSU will reverse this unsuccessful reform,” Alexander Throm (CDU), spokesperson on domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told DPA on Tuesday.

“Dual citizenship must remain the exception and be limited to countries that share our values.”

Throm also criticised the new citizenship law for reducing the amount of time foreigners need to live in the country before naturalising as Germans, describing the new residence requirements as “far too short”.

“After five or even three years, it is not yet possible to determine with certainty whether integration has been successful in the long term,” he stated.

“The recent caliphate demonstrations and the rampant Islamist extremism, often by people with German passports, must be a wake-up call for us all.”

READ ALSO: Which foreign residents are likely to become German after citizenship law change?

Despite vociferous opposition, the alliance between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) was powerless to stop the traffic-light coalition’s citizenship reform passing in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat earlier this year. 

The reform, which permits the holding of multiple passports, lowers residence requirements and removes language hurdles for certain groups, is set to come into force on June 27th. 

But with the CDU and CSU emerging as clear winners in the recent EU parliamentary elections and regularly landing on 30 percent or above in the polls, it’s possible that the party could be on course to re-enter government next year. 

In this situation, the centre-right parties have pledged to try and undo what senior CDU politicians have described as a “dangerous” reform.

“It is not unusual for successive governments to reverse decisions made by the previous government,” Andrea Lindholz, the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said in a recent response to a question. 

“We will maintain our position on this and will continue to strive for a corresponding change.”

READ ALSO: What are citizenship offices around Germany doing to prepare for the new law?

Whether the CDU and CSU can secure enough votes at both state and federal elections to change the law in the future remains to be seen.

The parties may also have to compromise on their plans with any future coalition partner, such as the Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) or Free Democrats (FDP), all of whom support liberal immigration laws and the holding of multiple nationalities. 

‘Citizenship devaluation law’

The CDU and CSU parties, which form a centre-right alliance nicknamed the Union, have long been opposed to dual nationality in Germany.

During their years of governing in a so-called grand coalition with the centre-right Social Democrats (SPD), the parties had regularly made reforms of citizenship one of their red lines, citing the danger of hostile nations influencing Germany from within. 

In a recent parliamentary speech back in January, Throm had slammed the bill as a “citizenship devaluation law” and accused the government of trying to generate a new electorate to win votes.

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

In comments aimed primarily at Germany’s large Turkish diaspora, the CDU politician claimed that people who had lived in Germany for decades but not taken German citizenship had already chosen their old country over Germany.

The majority of Turks in Germany are also supporters of the authoritarian president Recep Erdogan, he argued.

Responding to the claims, FDP migration expert Ann-Veruschka Jurisch said the opposition was fuelling resentments against migrants by claiming the government was “squandering German citizenship”.

In fact, she argued, the reform has tightened up requirements by ensuring that people who claim benefits and cannot support themselves are unable to become German citizens.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Germany’s citizenship law reform

In addition, the B1 language requirements have only been softened in a few exceptional cases, for example to honour the lifetime achievements of the guest worker generation who had few opportunities when they arrived, Jurisch said. 

If foreigners have committed crimes, the authorities will be able to investigate whether these involved racist or anti-Semitic motives before citizenship is granted, she added. 

With reporting by DPA

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