MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Friday, the upper house of the German parliament is set to vote on the final ratification of the integration law, following its adoption on Thursday by the lower house.
“The so-called ‘mandatory domicile’ is very important. It ensures that there will be no mono-ethnic neighborhoods that could quickly give rise to ‘parallel societies’. As it is well known, France, the United Kingdom and the Benelux are now struggling with this, there have emerged virtual suburban ghettos. We want to prevent this, and the mandatory domicile [clause] serves this goal,” Neumeyer said.
The new integration law requires refugees to take integration courses and learn the German language, cultural basics and national laws and enacts penalties for those who fail to take up the offer of assistance.
The legislation also includes a section on paths to employment. The bill proposes the creation of 100,000 work places for asylum-seekers, while they are waiting for their applications to be processed, and suspends for three years a law that required employers to give preference to German or EU job applicants over asylum seekers.
“In practice, this provision has only led to more bureaucracy. As a rule, a German national will continue to be better placed in the labor market than a refugee, at least because he has mastered the language better and knows better the modes of dealing,” the Bavarian integration officer noted.
The draft version of the integration law first floated in April in response to an unprecedented influx of migrants, coming to Germany from Middle East and North Africa.
In 2015 the country saw more than 1 million migrant arrivals, although since the beginning of 2016 after the closure of the Balkan route and the EU agreeing a controversial deal with Turkey, the number of refugees arriving to Germany has dropped off sharply.
