As of: February 28, 2024, 6:02 a.m
By: Theresa Kuchler
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There are high expectations for the new payment card.
However, they view asylum helpers critically.
© PayCenter GmbH/DPA
The Bavarian government expects a lot from the new payment card for asylum seekers.
Sharp criticism comes from the asylum helper circles in the district.
District – Of course, Bavaria goes its own way.
The payment card for asylum seekers, through which refugees will receive their social benefits in the future, is coming “faster and harder” in the Free State, as Prime Minister Markus Söder announced.
Four model municipalities are expected to work with the new map from March.
Only Hamburg is even faster: in a pilot project, the first “SocialCards” were issued there to benefit recipients in mid-February.
There are high expectations in the Visa-like card.
According to the Bavarian State Ministry for Integration, the main aim is to prevent German money from flowing abroad - to smugglers, families and friends.
The cash that will still be available to refugees after the card is introduced should be limited to 50 euros.
The ministry hopes that this in turn could reduce the so-called “pull factors” – i.e. the incentives for people to make their way to Germany in the first place.
Asylum helpers criticize payment cards for refugees – “significant discrimination and stigmatization”
Sharp criticism of the new card is already coming from asylum helper circles.
“In our opinion, the introduction of the payment card means significant discrimination and stigmatization of asylum seekers,” says Ingeborg Bias-Putzier.
For the district's integration guide, who is in close contact with the coordinators of the local asylum helper groups, the card is about nothing more than symbolic politics: “Hardness should be demonstrated to show the electorate: We are doing something against illegal migration.
Against our better judgment, people are constantly claiming that people are fleeing to us because there are high social benefits,” she says angrily.
In migration research, it is considered “long outdated” that it is primarily economic factors that motivate people to flee to Germany, she says.
It is still unclear when the card will be introduced in Weilheim-Schongau
According to the State Ministry, the plan is to issue the payment card throughout Bavaria in the course of the second quarter.
The district office cannot yet estimate when it will be used in Weilheim-Schongau.
It is also unclear exactly what the change will look like in the asylum authorities, which will issue the cards together with the anchor centers.
A call for tenders is currently underway at federal and state levels, explains Klaus Mergel, press spokesman for the district office.
“We are still waiting for the implementing regulations.”
Mergel says that it will probably be a “physically neutral card” that asylum seekers can also use digitally on their smartphone.
In stores – which must be limited to everyday needs – it will “work like any other credit card”.
If there are technical problems, “the purchase – like any other defective card – must be canceled,” Mergel makes clear.
The functional radius of the payment card can be limited - helpers fear additional work
There are strict restrictions when it comes to sending money or shopping online.
According to the district office, the payment card for asylum seekers cannot transfer money at home or abroad.
Outside Germany it is generally useless.
It will also not be possible to send an amount of money from one card to another.
Neither is participating in gambling or shopping at an online shop located outside the EU.
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In addition, they want to keep other regulations open: As press spokesman Klaus Mergel confirms, “the possibility should be given” to limit the functional radius of the payment card.
For example, asylum seekers could only go shopping within a certain radius of their accommodation.
By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Schongau newsletter. And in our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter.
Asylum helpers in the region view this very critically.
Ingeborg Bias-Putzier wonders how this is supposed to work in a rural area like ours, “where sometimes there are only expensive village shops”, bakers and kiosks, but no discounters or supermarkets.
Public transport is “poor and expensive at the same time; 50 euros are quickly spent,” she points out.
She therefore sees a “significant additional burden” on volunteers with the payment card – for example through transport services and financial support.
The local newspapers in the Weilheim-Schongau district are represented on Instagram under “merkur_wm_sog”.