As of: February 25, 2024, 12:30 p.m
By: Tadhg Nagel
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Press
Split
In the future, refugees should pay for purchases with a card.
But the dispute over regulations for asylum seekers is not over.
Berlin – The controversial payment card for refugees is due to arrive this year;
The first calls for tender have already begun.
Even though the traffic light coalition was initially determined to tackle the project quickly together with the states, the question of legal protection is slowing down implementation for the time being.
The introduction of a nationwide payment card was already agreed in November 2023 - at a meeting between the Prime Ministers and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
The details were then explored by a working group set up by the Prime Minister's Conference;
a process that was completed at the end of January this year.
The joint award of contracts is now underway, in which 14 of the 16 federal states are taking part.
Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, however, take a special approach to the award process.
Payment card instead of cash - less administrative work for municipalities or a “discrimination tool”?
The card's functional principle is the same in all federal states: refugees should receive less cash from the municipalities as long as their asylum application process has not yet been completed or they only have a toleration status.
Instead, purchases should be paid for using a card with a debit function.
This debit card is not linked to an account;
It is regularly topped up with credit via transfer from the social authorities to banks.
Each federal state decides on the amount of the cash amount as well as other additional functions and restrictions. Transfers and use abroad are generally not permitted.
According to the Prime Minister's Conference, it is hoped that this will reduce “the administrative burden on municipalities” and “prevent the possibility of transferring money from state support to the countries of origin”.
In this way, they also want to counteract “inhumane smuggling crime”.
The organization Pro Asyl, on the other hand, sees the payment card as a “discrimination instrument” that makes life more difficult for refugees in Germany and is often “associated with the public defamation of those affected”.
A payment card is shown at a press conference.
© Bodo Schackow/dpa
Countries want an “effective and comprehensive solution” - Now the traffic light coalition is divided
Others, including Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), repeatedly point out that such a payment card is intended to reduce the attractiveness of the Federal Republic as an escape destination.
Migration researchers disagree and say that state benefits are not the main reason why people leave their homeland and come to Germany.
There is insufficient evidence to support the theory that migration is actually stimulated by so-called push and pull factors.
What are push and pull factors?
Why are they controversial?
Push factors
are negative aspects or conditions that cause people to leave their current place of residence.
These factors literally push people away and can take various forms, including economic, social, political or environmental reasons.
Examples of push factors include unemployment, poverty, political instability, conflicts, natural disasters or a lack of educational opportunities.
Pull factors
are positive incentives or conditions that encourage people to settle in a particular location.
These factors literally “pull” people and can include, for example, better economic opportunities, political stability, higher quality of life, educational opportunities or a safer environment.
The theory goes back to the American sociologist Everett Lee and dates back to the 1960s.
At that time, Lee tried to establish universal factors for migration movements.
In migration research, the theory has long been considered outdated, even if it is brought out again and again.
On the one hand, the theory places a strong emphasis on economic causes of flight.
On the other hand, it often presents reality and the resulting escape decisions in an oversimplified manner.
Despite the criticism, the traffic light coalition and the federal states agreed that the payment card must be introduced.
What is needed is “an effective and comprehensive payment card solution that is legally secure,” said Tobias Rösmann, spokesman for the Hessian state government.
However, the coalition recently split over the question of whether the map requires federal regulation.
While the SPD and FDP consider legal regulation to be necessary, the Greens oppose it because they consider the existing legal options to be sufficient.
Ricarda Lang (Greens) pointed out to
Bild
that all the necessary requirements and options were already in place - after all, implementation was already underway “in reality”.
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Kretschmann sees no reason to doubt the payment card - but the introduction is still chaotic
The states, on the other hand, are pushing for legal certainty - including Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg.
“I am clear on this: it has to be legally secure,” says Kretschmann.
If the card is introduced and then successfully complained about, the state will show that it is “unable to act on such issues”.
He has “no reason to doubt” that federal regulation is necessary.
After all, Florian Stegmann, head of the State Chancellery of Baden-Württemberg, “checked and negotiated this with the others”.
Other state leaders have a similar opinion and are calling for the agreement between the federal and state governments to be implemented before they tackle the project.
Only four federal states disagree.
Bavaria already considers the payment card to be legally compliant, as Florian Herrmann (CSU) made clear to
Bild
.
The card is already running as a pilot project in Hamburg - just like in Thuringia.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania started the tender on Thursday (February 22), even if the legal situation is not yet clear.
(tpn)