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Refugees at Munich Central Station in August 2015
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
Sometimes it is worth taking a look at the statistics.
So let's start with a few numbers.
Living in Germany as of December 2020:
818,460 people from Syria
, total male share: 58.7 percent.
Proportion of men in the age group 20 to 25 years: 67.8 percent.
271,805 people from Afghanistan
, total male share: 63.8 percent.
Proportion of men in the age group 20 to 25 years: 83.6 percent.
15,730 people from Gambia
, total male share: 85.6 percent.
Proportion of men in the age group 20 to 25 years: 94.5 percent (source: Federal Statistical Office).
These figures show how misogynist European asylum policy is.
The principle applies: survival of the fittest.
Only those who are strong or have enough money can make the risky route to Germany to apply for asylum - and these are mainly young men.
Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, even for men. But the women are particularly bad off there. "Domestic violence, mutilations, beatings, murders, forced marriages and early marriages as well as the marriage of women and girls to resolve conflicts or pay off debts are widespread across the country," writes the women's rights organization Terre des Femmes in a report from 2018, long before the radical Islamist Taliban took control of the country again. The situation is so threatening that Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer no longer even wants to deport Islamist threats, sex offenders or murderers there. Hundreds of thousands are currently trying to get to safety from the Taliban, within Afghanistan or in neighboring countries.The escape to Europe, which is more than 6000 kilometers away, will again primarily only be dared by men.
Many Gambian women also want a better future
There is no war in Gambia, and those who come to Germany from there often flee from poverty.
Many Gambian women certainly also wish for a better future.
In addition, there is something else: "In The Gambia, 75% of women between 15 and 49 years of age are circumcised," writes the Unicef children's aid organization on its website.
»Genital mutilation is extremely dangerous for girls and women.
The consequences torment those affected for a lifetime. "
How can we as a society accept that we give so many men the chance of a better life - and so few women?
Activists and politicians throw themselves into the fight with a lot of energy to achieve more justice in the German language, quotas in supervisory boards and boardrooms or higher salaries.
No question about it, there is still a lot to be done in this area in terms of equality.
As far as the disadvantage of women in the asylum system is concerned, it remains strangely silent.
Perhaps because it is "only" about a humanitarian aspect - and not about the distribution of power?
The women left behind have no lobby and no major hashtag campaigns to support them are known.
But what can be done to help more women from Afghanistan or Syria?
More visas for family reunification would be a possible adjustment screw to change something in the situation.
The proportion of women among Syrians is likely to have risen from 32.5 percent to 41.3 percent since 2015.
From an emancipatory point of view, however, there is a catch to the whole thing: Most women who enter this way can only do so depending on a man who preceded them.
They must be wives or underage daughters.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, however, the majority of Syrian and Afghan men in Germany are single.
The authorities generally do not issue visas to sisters or mothers of adult men.
International law also applies to men
The CDU member of the Bundestag Kai Wegner has already called for a kind of women's quota for refugees. In 2017, he suggested simply turning away men traveling alone at the border at a certain point, so that only women, children and married couples could pass through. That is reprehensible. International law also applies to men. Anyone who is politically persecuted or who flees a war must be allowed to seek protection, regardless of their gender. But as long as it is so much more difficult for women than men to get to Europe, alternative routes are needed.
The solution for a women's quota could look like this: The proportion of women in population groups who come from war and crisis countries could easily be increased through special quotas. This would be conceivable, for example, for the age group 20 to 25, in which men are particularly overrepresented. In this country there are 44 610 Afghans of this age and only 8735 Afghan women. Resettlement, this is the technical term for the resettlement of refugees, of 10,000 to 20,000 Afghan women would at least alleviate the discrepancy. Singles, students, employees of international aid organizations.
As far as the Gambians are concerned, there are 4,000 women who are allowed to come to Germany so that a ratio of 50:50 would be established here.
So the numbers are not huge at the moment and would be manageable for the German welfare state.
And what if, triggered by the violence of the Taliban, there actually is a massive new refugee movement towards Europe?
Then the German federal government should ask itself the question of how useful it is to take mainly men.