As of: February 14, 2024, 5:26 a.m
By: Jana Stabener
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Does a blue social card for payment prevent people from coming to Germany?
A young asylum seeker from Turkey says what advantage he sees in the card.
Ümran Tekin fled to Germany from Turkey three months ago.
The asylum seeker is currently living in shared accommodation in Ortenaukreis (Baden-Württemberg).
The 21-year-old is one of the first refugees who no longer receives cash from the state, but rather a blue Visa-style social card.
He cannot use it to make transfers, but rather to buy things for his daily needs.
The district credits him the money for this every month.
In the long term, such a type of payment card is planned nationwide.
It is intended not only to reduce the administrative burden in the authorities, but also to prevent refugees from transferring money to family or friends in their home country.
A “milestone” in the efforts to reduce incentives for irregular migration, says Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP).
A payment card like the one already issued to refugees in Ortenau (symbolic image).
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
“It doesn’t bother me,” Tekin tells
BuzzFeed News Germany
, a portal from
Ippen.Media
, about this measure.
For him it goes without saying that he does not transfer social benefits to Turkey.
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t do it,” Tekin says.
Also because it is just enough for his life.
“There are people who need money from home rather than sending something in,” says the 21-year-old.
In any case, the social benefits are not enough for hobbies for which he had money in Turkey.
“We can’t just go somewhere and do something.”
More on the topic: Bavaria is taking a special approach to payment cards
Payment card for refugees is only valid in selected stores
The Ortenau district of Tekin once transferred 460 euros to its blue payment card.
He can't order online with it.
The card is only valid in four to five selected stores in his locality.
No problem, says Tekin.
Then he just goes shopping in these stores.
We ask Tekin if he knows anyone who only came to Germany because of social benefits.
The 21-year-old says no.
The people he met were all here to work - not to send social benefits back home.
Ümran Tekin came to Germany three months ago and is one of the first refugees to test the new payment card.
© private
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“The level of social benefits has no demonstrable effect on migration”
Tim Müller from the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research at Humboldt University confirms the 21-year-old's impression: “If a district administrator says he has specific cases of people taking advantage of social benefits, then I can't refute that.
But based on the data, I can say: This phenomenon does not exist on a mass scale,” he tells
BuzzFeed News Germany.
“The level of social benefits has no demonstrable effect on migration.”
In a study, he and his team looked at why people immigrate to a certain country.
The result: The size of the country, its economic performance and social contacts have a demonstrable effect - not the cash paid out.
“To think that people have an idea of how high the respective social benefits are is a completely exaggerated expectation.”
As far as remittances are concerned, these do play a role globally, but mostly come from people who work.
“There’s nothing objectionable about that,” says Müller.
He accuses politicians like Markus Söder, who wants to demonstrate “hardship” with the payment card, of “symbolic politics”.
This would not ensure that fewer people immigrate.
Instead, they defamed the refugees who were already there.
“After all, social benefits are not there for fun, they are there to secure livelihoods.”
Caritas calls for an end to “ineffective restrictions” for payment cards
“Electronic payments are actually a matter of course and it is overdue to make them possible for refugees,” says Steffen Feldmann from the board of the German Caritas Association
BuzzFeed News Germany
.
“For municipalities, paying out with the payment card can become less complicated and less labor-intensive.”
“Unfortunately, from our point of view, there is a big catch: the payment card is intended to control migration and therefore contains restrictive elements,” criticizes Feldmann: “Experience shows that neither The modalities of the payment nor the amount of benefits have an impact on the escape process.”
It is “a massive impairment of personal freedom” that refugees can only use the card in certain regions or shops, but not on the Internet or for transfers to a lawyer Cash withdrawals should be limited.
“We call on the states and municipalities to use the advantages of the payment card – but without ineffective and dubious restrictions,” demands Feldmann.
More on the topic: This is how the payment card works in Hesse
Refugee: “Maybe the payment card is even good”
“If there are really refugees who are only here because of the money, the card is an advantage and puts us in a better light,” says Tekin.
“Maybe the payment card is even good.
The main thing is that the discussions stop,” says his 25-year-old friend Hüseyin Tosun, who lives in the same accommodation in Ortenau.
What do you want from German asylum policy?
“That politicians come to our accommodation and see what difficulties we have to deal with,” says Tosun.
Perhaps then there will no longer be any political discussions about incentives for refugees who supposedly only come to Germany because of the money.
More on the topic: This is how the money is currently paid out to asylum seekers