Toleration and work bans
Juni 2021
An endless loop of isolation and humiliation: Most refugees and migrants from a non-EU country are only granted a very precarious status under aliens law. The asylum applications are rejected. Afterwards, most of them live here with with a ‘toleration’.
The toleration is always limited in time and must be renewed at intervals. During a toleration period, a person is “obliged to leave the country” but cannot be “obliged to leave the country, but cannot be deported. Deportation is always possible once the toleration has expired. In addition a toleration can be terminated at any time without notice. Therefore a person with a toleration status is always threatened with deportation.
Some of us know from our own experience what this means. Desperate emergency calls from refugees in collective accommodation have encouraged us to have strengthened our resolve to talk more intensively with those affected.
We visited collective centres in various regions and spoke with refugees refugees who could no longer endure this situation and were now and are now living in ‘illegality’. They told us that they live in in constant fear and see no chance of building an independent existence and existence and to shape their lives independently.
In addition, their often traumatic experiences in their country of origin and during their journey to Germany country of origin and during their journey to Germany, due to a lack of psychological support here.
With a toleration permit, it is also very difficult to obtain a work permit. to obtain a work permit. Some are even banned from working with different are even punished with a work ban. In addition persons are subject to a blanket work ban after the law that came into force on 21.08.2019, with a “Duldung light” are subject to a blanket work ban – as well as a residence requirement. This means that refugees and migrants without work remain
Thus, refugees and migrants without work remain dependent on social benefits and cannot leave their reception centres or other collective accommodation (camps) under these conditions – even after years. This means that they are not allowed to move to a place of their choice. Even a short stay in another federal state can earn them a fine.
These collective accommodations for refugees and migrants are often old military barracks in remote locations with no public public transport connections. All these hurdles hinder the search for employment and any participation in society; e.g. also integration and German courses, which are not offered in the shelters.
Many know neither the way in nor out of this situation, which often lasts for years and for years and sometimes even decades!
They are desperate and fall ill. Time and again, suicide is the only way people find to end their hopeless situation.
Others decide to “go underground” in order to escape deportation or to deportation or to lead a self-determined life. They are thus illegalised and extremely defenceless and exploitable.
Since 01.08.2015, Germany has had a so-called right of abode regulation that does not depend on a specific date. This means that people with a toleration permit who have been in Germany for a long time, can, under certain conditions, be granted a secure residence permit residence permit on the grounds of “sustainable integration”.
A possible right to stay is no longer tied to a cut-off date and and can be granted if the respective foreigners authority determines “successful integration”. However: “From the information provided by the Bundestag printed matter 18/11101 of 07.02.2017, it can be read that the right of abode regulation according to §§25a and b of the Residence Act for for long-term tolerated persons is largely ineffective.
There is an enormous discrepancy between the number of potentially entitled persons and the residence rights actually granted.”
Those who are deprived of all access to participation in society and who are who are deprived of all access to social participation and have to live in constant fear integrate into society.
We therefore demand a right to stay for all!
And we demand
- the right to work
- the right to live in dignity in a place of one’s own choosing
- the right to unrestricted medical treatment
- the right to full cultural and political participation.