Geschrieben von: Daniel Naujoks
On January 1, 2005 the new German Immigration Act came into force. The regime for some 7,400,000 foreigners living already in Germany and for the influx of around 660,000 immigrants each year has changed significantly.
The new act is the second attempt to establish a new regime on immigration in Germany. On 18 December 2002 the first Immigration Act was declared invalid by the Federal Constitutional Court for formal reasons concerning its adoption in 2002. The new Immigration Act, adopted on 30 July 2004 represents a compromise between the socialist-green government of chancellor Schröder and the conservative opposition. It contains the Act on the Residence, Economic Activity and Integration of Foreigners in the Federal Territory (Residence Act) and the Act on the General Freedom of movement for EU Citizens. In addition, there have been amendments on further provisons as the Asylum Procedures Act, the Law on Social Benefits for Asylum Seekers and the Nationality Act.
The scope of the Residence Act is to control and restrict the influx of foreigners into Germany as well as to enable and organise immigration with due regard to the capacities for admission and integration and the interests of Germany's economy and labour market and humanitarian obligations. There are provisions on residence rights for the different purposes of migration, on the expulsion of foreigners and on the promotion of integration through integration and language course and it applies for third-country nationals only (i.e. foreigners who are not a citizen of an EU Member State).
Now, there are only two kinds of residence permits, namely a limited residence permit and an unlimited settlement permit. The preconditions for the granting of a residence title depend on the the reason coming for to Germany. Apart from granting visas for tourists, the Residence Act recognises four different purposes of migration: education, economic activity, family reasons and refugee protection.
The law establishs a new procedure on granting residence and work permits in order to reduce bureaucracy. According to the so called one-stop-government the Immigration Office(Ausländerbehörde) issue a work permit together with the residende permit, subject only to internal approval by the labour office. This is expected to be a significant simplification of procedure.
The new Act on the General Freedom of movement for EU Citizens eliminates the need for Union citizens to obtain a residence permit. In the future, a Union citizen living in Germany will simply be required to register with the local authorities, something that all Germans must do as well.
The new Immigration Act is seen as a complete revison of German immigration law. But from the beginning, the possibilities of the German legislator to adopt a new regime were limited. Since the treaty of Amsterdam European politics has acquired more and more importance in the area of immigration and asylum law. Harmonization is growing continuously in this sector and national legislators are losing influence in these subjects. This phenomenon is often poorly recognised by European society. Up until now, there have been Community Acts on family reunion, on long-term residents, and on granting refugee status and asylum procedures. There are some more ten European directives on migration issues Germany has not transposed into national law yet. That is why the current version of the new law will not last a long time.
This article is the first of a series on European-migration-law.net. Look out for our further articles which will deal with topics as labour immigration, education, family reunion, integration and citizenship.
The full text of the Immigration Act can be downloaded at the
law section (in English language)
