As of: March 26, 2024, 6:42 a.m
By: Katrin Woitsch, Armin Forster
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Asylum seekers should be able to pay in all supermarkets with the new card.
It works like a Mastercard.
© Ostermaier
The first payment cards are being issued to asylum seekers in four regions of Bavaria today.
Politicians are convinced that this will reduce incentives to flee to Germany.
Asylum workers have strong doubts - also because of their experiences with a similar card that was available in Erding in 2016.
Munich - When Maria Brand was cleaning out a few months ago, a thick stack of paper ended up in the bin.
It was from 2016. At that time, she and other asylum workers documented exactly what went wrong with the municipal pass, which Erding was the only district to use as a payment card for refugees.
“I really hoped we had put this stressful chapter behind us,” says the 77-year-old.
She remembers this time with horror, she says.
Refugees repeatedly stood at a checkout with the card and the payment didn't work.
There were problems, especially in rural regions.
She was sometimes there herself, had to lay out money and deal with frustration.
“The system back then meant exclusion,” she emphasizes.
The refugees were able to withdraw around 150 euros per month in cash with the municipal pass.
“That was just enough for bus tickets, sales at school, a drink at the club party, a used bicycle or other little things that you can’t pay for with a card,” reports Brand.
Payment card for refugees: Card payments are hardly possible at flea markets or second-hand shops
Many refugees would use flea markets or second-hand shops to shop cheaply.
Card payments are usually not possible there either.
“And as soon as they visited relatives or friends in another county, they could no longer pay with their card.”
At the time, the asylum workers in the district office did not get through with their criticism.
Looking back, District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (CSU) says today that the municipal pass system worked well in Erding.
The payment card will not make integration any easier.
Asylum worker Maria Brand
Starting signal for payment card for refugees in Bavaria
From today on there will be a very similar card for asylum seekers in four regions of Bavaria.
In the districts of Fürstenfeldbruck, Traunstein and Günzburg as well as in the independent city of Straubing, refugees no longer receive cash, but rather a payment card.
It works like a Mastercard.
The company PayCenter from Freising, which developed the card, promises that there will be no more breakdowns like the ones in Erding.
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Testers went shopping in advance at various retailers, supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations to check whether the system worked, reports managing director Peter Schönweitz.
The company has also contacted clerks in district offices.
“You should be relieved of the burden with the payment card.” In the future, refugees will no longer have to collect the cash; it will be credited to the card every month.
If a card is stolen or lost, it can be blocked immediately, explains Schönweitz.
The Ministry of the Interior can also adjust what can be paid for with the card - for example a membership fee to clubs or the 49 euro ticket.
Payment card for refugees: Four test regions in Bavaria
Initial experiences are now to be gained in the four test regions.
The payment card is to be introduced across Bavaria by the end of June - until then it could still be tightened up, said Interior State Secretary Sandro Kirchner (CSU) yesterday.
First, the payment card should be reduced to the zip code of the respective pilot region.
Refugees in the Fürstenfeldbruck district cannot use this to pay in a supermarket in the neighboring district.
After Hamburg, Bavaria is the first federal state to take this step.
And the most consistent, as Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) emphasized yesterday.
The amount of cash that can be withdrawn is reduced to 50 euros per month.
“We think you can get by with that.” In addition, no transfers, no online purchases and no gambling are possible with it.
The money supply for smugglers and smugglers will be significantly reduced, emphasized Söder.
Above all, politicians hope that the card will reduce incentives to flee to Germany.
Fürstenfeldbruck District Administrator Thomas Karmasin (CSU) – also President of the Bavarian District Council – is convinced that cash is one of the factors that attracts refugees to Germany.
“I know from many years of experience that money not only ends up with the smugglers, but is also transferred to the home countries.”
This is what it looks like: The payment card for refugees is being introduced in four Bavarian regions today.
© Julia Steinbrecht
Payment card for refugees starts in Bavaria
Many associations and refugee organizations doubt this. “Around 75 percent of all transfers abroad go to other EU countries,” emphasizes Diakonie President Sabine Weingärtner.
“Only a small proportion, around twelve percent, go to the refugees’ home countries.” And remittances abroad only play a role when the asylum seekers have a job and a secure income.
“The social benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act are far too low to send larger amounts home.”
Wilhelm Dräxler, migration officer at Caritas and integration officer in the Fürstenfeldbruck city council, confirms this. “If someone manages to save 50 euros from their small pocket money to send to their family, that is a form of development aid and better “As if the families were also setting off.” Dräxler cannot understand the argument that smugglers are paid from asylum seeker benefits.
“The smugglers work on advance payment; they have long since been paid by the time the people arrive with us.” But he knows from experience how important it is for refugees to be able to have a lawyer for legal advice.
“I hope that payment for this will work with the card via direct debit.”
Refugees leave their homeland because of the human rights situation, “not because of 460 euro asylum benefits”
Erdinger asylum worker Maria Brand will be watching closely to see how the new payment card trial goes in the four pilot regions.
“Even if payment works more smoothly this time, the payment card doesn’t make people’s integration any easier,” says the 77-year-old.
She has been involved in asylum assistance for 33 years and has heard many escape stories.
“The vast majority of people leave their homeland because of the human rights situation – not because of 460 euros in asylum benefits.” She fears that she and the other helpers will have to explain a lot and deal with frustration again by summer at the latest when the card is introduced across Bavaria.
There is only one difference from 2016, she says.
“Of the hundreds of asylum helpers we had in Erding, not many are left.
Also because of such regulations.
The frustration was too great.”
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