Asylum abuse

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Asylum abuse (also called asylum fraud ) is a German-language political catchphrase in the context of debates about asylum / asylum law.

It was used particularly frequently in the German asylum debate in the 1980s and early 1990s. In a similar sense, the terms were as political Tags "bogus asylum seeker" or "asylum cheaters" some media and politicians used the part.

The word was used by the German CDU , CSU , SPD and the Austrian FPÖ , the BZÖ as well as ÖVP and SPÖ in political discourse and election campaigns. The catchphrase was and is also used by right-wing extremist parties such as the German NPD , the (now defunct) DVU and the pro movement, as well as right-wing conservative and right-wing populist parties such as the Republicans or the now meaningless Swiss Auto Party . Right-wing extremists were also able to obtain legitimation for acts of violence against asylum seekers and people with a migration background from this discourse .

Research on the catchphrase

The German scholar Martin Wengeler , who specializes in discourse analysis , sees the catchphrase “asylum abuse” as a realization of a “abuse topos ”, which he identifies as important in the discourse on immigration in the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1980s, arguing against immigration. Based on the actual use of the right of asylum by asserting a reality, namely that “a right / an offer of help or the like is abused”, this serves to infer the “necessity of a change in the right to asylum”.

Political scientists Christoph Butterwegge and Gudrun Hentges examined the term “asylum abuse” from the perspective of its use as a media topic and the responsibility and failure of journalists due to overuse of the term.

According to Ines Aftenberger, the agitation against "asylum abuse" is a central topic in right-wing extremist media, for example in the magazine Nation und Europa .

Political Discourse in Germany

Asylum debate

In Germany, the asylum discussion in the 1980s was shaped by the term asylum abuse and a steadily growing number of people referred to as “ economic refugees ”. To remedy this, the SPD called for measures to accelerate the process. The SPD parliamentary group considered benefits in kind instead of cash benefits, visa requirements and a temporary work ban as necessary measures to contain and deter unauthorized asylum seekers. The CDU / CSU parliamentary group formulated under the social-liberal coalition in 1982 as the goal of a motion "measures against asylum abuse to stop the influx of bogus asylum seekers and economic refugees". After the Christian-liberal coalition took over government in the 10th legislative period from 1983 onwards , the deputy FDP federal chairman Wolfgang Gerhardt also proposed the topic in the next election campaign in 1986 in view of the increasing number of asylum seekers, growing dissatisfaction among the population and the intention of the CDU / CSU coalition partners to include a five-year work ban as a “deterrent for economic refugees”.

According to Klaus Bade, the rejection of an asylum application in the asylum debate is often equated with the disclosure of the deliberate attempt to obtain social benefits under false pretenses. However, this undifferentiated argumentation neglects the fact that the asylum procedure did not investigate whether the asylum seeker was persecuted or whether his life, limb or liberty was threatened, but only whether there was individual persecution that was politically motivated from the point of view of the country of origin. Therefore, asylum applications from refugees from civil war countries had no prospect of success. This very large group of rejected asylum seekers was obviously not economic refugees. After an amendment to the Asylum Procedure Act in 1987, legislation and case law no longer saw even the threat of torture at home as a conclusive reason for granting asylum. The Federal Administrative Court ruled that torture in Turkey was to be assessed as a “common means” of maintaining the state order and as “not relevant to asylum”. Among many others, the President of the Federal Administrative Court, Everhardt Franßen , warned in February 1992 against speaking of an abuse of the right to asylum in the case of rejected asylum applications.

The aim of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act passed in 1993 was "to minimize the influx of refugees to Germany and to prevent the so-called asylum abuse". At this point in time, Germany was “exposed to increasing immigration pressure and abuse of the right to asylum” due to its geographical location, its economic prosperity and the asylum law enshrined in the Basic Law . The revision of the asylum law had become necessary against the background of the sharp increase in asylum seekers to around 440,000 people in 1992. The new version of Art. 16a severely restricted the use of the right of asylum, which was still fundamentally granted, and, in the opinion of critics, largely impossible. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, however, the asylum compromise ensured that protection “for foreigners who were really politically persecuted” would continue to be offered in the future. For the 1994 Bundestag elections , the Union parties adopted an election program with the aim of combating crime by foreigners and illegal immigration , most of which were associated with violations of the asylum law.

Report of the Independent Commission on Immigration of the German Interior Ministry

The Independent Commission on Immigration , set up by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2000, described the term asylum abuse as an “ ethically justified negative judgment” in its final report . The term is ambiguous and equally suitable to devalue asylum seekers who have not been recognized as politically persecuted , or to accurately characterize "certain disapproving behavior" by asylum seekers. The commission came to the conclusion that the term “ very widespread in public and published opinion and - correctly used - indicates a problem that does exist”. An undifferentiated use, on the other hand, turns the word into a "meaningless 'battle term' that is useful to those who actually behave improperly". The differentiated use of the expression is decisive.

Rejected asylum applications should not necessarily be seen as an indicator of asylum abuse, since asylum seekers could well assume in good faith that they are entitled to asylum, although this will be decided negatively in the later proceedings. In particular, those who “conduct an asylum procedure in order to free themselves and their families from economic poverty” are not acting abusive per se.

The commission mainly referred to the Asylum Procedure Act and defined actual abuse of the right of asylum based on the following categories:

“These are cases in which an unauthorized stay is sought or secured by

  • the legal and procedural guarantees of asylum and immigration law are misappropriated or
  • the obligation to leave the country is not complied with and deportation is prevented by the applicant himself. "

Anyone who enters without having been persecuted and “only engages in exile politics in Germany simply to force an obstacle to deportation by means of a deliberately brought about risk of persecution” is accordingly abusive. The destruction of passport documents to conceal one's identity, the pretense of illness and the submission of follow-up applications solely for the purpose of extending residence are assessed as abuse of asylum.

Debate 2012

In October 2012, Federal Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich ( CSU ) and the Hessian Interior Minister Boris Rhein ( CDU ) warned of “asylum abuse” by Serbian and Macedonian applicants, especially Roma , and called for the reintroduction of the visa requirement, which was lifted in 2009, for nationals of these countries. Asylum applications from both countries had skyrocketed since then. The recognition rate in September 2012 was zero percent.

In a joint declaration in October 2012 , Roma associations and refugee organizations such as Pro Asyl reacted to the blanket accusation of “asylum abuse” against asylum seekers. Roma and other minorities are massively discriminated against in Serbia and Macedonia.

In an information brochure from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees “The German asylum procedure - explained in detail”, the asylum law change in 1993 is explained: “The then continuously increasing number of asylum seekers peaked in 1992 with over 400,000 asylum seekers, the vast majority of whom came to the German welfare system intended. ”A request from“ Migazin ”, which data supported this statement, was answered by an employee of the responsible BAMF department with the words that he did not know either. The Left in the Bundestag pointed out that the official statistics 20 years ago showed the disintegrating Yugoslavia as the main country of origin of the refugees, and that fleeing civil wars was not a recognized reason for fleeing in Germany at the time . Pro Asylum noted that the number 400,000, according to the organization's assessment, was significantly too high, as the statistics at the time did not differentiate between initial and subsequent asylum applications. Per asylum it is assumed that there were actually only 270,000 to 280,000 asylum seekers (initial applications) in 1992.

Political Discourse in Austria

In Austria the term asylum abuse is used in political rhetoric by the FPÖ , ÖVP and SPÖ . When the coalition government Schüssel I was formed in 2000, the ÖVP and FPÖ formulated in their government program, among other things, the goal of “creating European foundations to prevent asylum abuse ( EURODAC )”. When adopting the Asylum Act 2003, the ÖVP justified tightening such as the restriction of rights of appeal by stating that "asylum abuse should be prevented".

The BZÖ in 2007 published a poster on which under the heading "We clean Graz" two street sweeper in front of the town hall were displayed, eliminated the four piles of rubbish, "asylum abuse", "crime by foreigners", "beggar mischief" and "Parteienfilz". The party used National Socialist motifs and symbolism. One result of the right-wing discourse in public debates is that asylum is increasingly associated with "abuse" and has assumed a negative meaning.

Legal dimension of the term (Germany)

German Basic Law

Article 18 of the Basic Law declares that an abuse of the right of asylum "to fight against the free democratic basic order"would leadto its forfeiture . The Federal Constitutional Court has not yet pronouncedsuch a forfeiture.

Asylum Act

Section 84 of the Asylum Act (AsylG) (until October 23, 2015: AsylVfG) makes it a punishable offense to induce people to submit an abusive asylum application. According to this, it is improper to provide incorrect or incomplete information in order to enable recognition as a person entitled to asylum or the granting of international protection. However, the threat of punishment does not specifically apply to the applicant.

literature

  • Heinz Bonfadelli : The representation of ethnic minorities in the mass media . In: Heinz Bonfadelli and Heinz Moser (eds.): Media and Migration: Europe as a multicultural space? VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, pp. 95–116, ISBN 978-3-531-15129-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. inter alia: Doreen Müller: Flucht und Asyl in European migration regimes. Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-941875-71-5 (also dissertation at the University of Göttingen 2010, open access available ), especially p. 185 .
  2. ↑ a b Martin Wengeler : Topos and Discourse . Justification of an argumentation-analytical method and its application to the migration discourse. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-31244-0 , p. 313 f . ( Online ).
  3. ^ Volker Epping: Grundrechte , Verlag Springer, Heidelberg, 2004, ISBN 978-3-642-01446-8 , p. 433
  4. ↑ http://www.bpb.de/gesellschaft/migration/dossier-migration/56435/flucht-und-asyl-1950-1989
  5. ↑ Government program of the SPD 2002 ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spd.de
  6. ↑ Werner T. Bauer: Right-wing extremists and right-wing populist parties in Europe (PDF; 2.2 MB). In: Austrian Society for Policy Advice and Policy Development, May 2012 (updated version), p. 59.
  7. ↑ Balance sheet security and justice : "Aliens law package - the law package contained the abuse of asylum and closed existing gaps in aliens law", http://spoe.at/bilanz-sicherheit-und-justiz , accessed on 23 August 2013
  8. ↑ Reinhard Kühnl : Danger from the Right: Past and Present of the Extreme Right . Distel-Verlag, Heilbronn 1990, ISBN 3-923208-23-5 , p. 113. Google Books
  9. ↑ Peter Niggli and Jürg Frischknecht : Right-wing clusters: how the "creepy patriots" mastered the collapse of communism . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-85869-165-8 , p. 266.
  10. ↑ Christiane Schurian-Bremecker (ed.): "I am I ...": Migration and memory . kassel university press , Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-89958-722-7 , p. 21 .
  11. ↑ Christoph Butterwegge and Gudrun Hentges: “Foreigners and Asylum Abuse” as a media topic: Responsibility and failure of journalists . In: Christoph Butterwegge and Georg Lohmann (eds.): Youth, right-wing extremism and violence. Analysis and Arguments . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2000, pp. 83-99, ISBN 978-3-8100-2976-8 .
  12. ↑ Ines Aftenberger: The New Right and Neorassism . Grazer Universitätsverlag, Graz 2007, ISBN 3-7011-0088-8 , p. 238.
  13. ^ A b Klaudia Tietze: Immigration and the German parties , Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2008
  14. ^ A b Klaus J. Bade: Foreigners, resettlers, asylum . Munich 1994, p. 110
  15. ^ Ulrich Herbert: History of the policy on foreigners in Germany. Munich 2001, p. 299
  16. ^ Franz Nuscheler: International Migration . Wiesbaden 2004, p. 142
  17. ↑ Klaus J. Bade, Foreigners, Resettlers, Asylum . Munich 1994, p. 112.
  18. ↑ Alexandra-Isabel Reidel: Legal foundations of social affairs: Text edition for studies and work , Walhalla Fachverlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8029-1934-3 , p. 40
  19. ↑ Michael Griesbeck: Protection against political persecution and worldwide migration - content and limits of the work of the Federal Office , in: Asylpraxis. Series of publications by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees :, 2nd edition, Vol. 2 (2001) pp. 13–65 (17), ISBN 3-9805881-1-4 )
  20. ↑ a b Federal Office for Migration and Refugees : Asylum compromise guarantees protection for politically persecuted people. Amendment to the Basic Law to prevent abuse of the right of asylum , dated January 14, 2011, accessed on September 27, 2012
  21. ^ Volker Epping: Grundrechte , Verlag Springer, Heidelberg, 2004, ISBN 978-3-642-01446-8 , p. 433 f.
  22. ^ Report of the Independent Commission “Immigration”: Shaping Immigration. Promote integration ( memento of the original from 23 August 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , July 4, 2001, pp. 145 f.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmi.bund.de
  23. ↑ Die Welt : Refugees. More and more asylum seekers are coming from Serbia , from October 12, 2012, accessed on October 12, 2012
  24. ^ Die Welt : Minister Rhein sees "asylum abuse" among the Roma , from October 9, 2012, accessed on October 12, 2012
  25. ^ Joint statement by Roma and refugee organizations on the debate about alleged abuse of asylum . Press release Pro Asyl of October 16, 2012.
  26. ^ "At NPD level" Migazin November 14, 2012
  27. ↑ "Federal Office for Migration reviles asylum seekers" Der Tagesspiegel November 28, 2012.
  28. ^ Der Spiegel : The ÖVP / FPÖ government program , February 4, 2000
  29. ↑ Andrea Götzelmann: Who makes asylum policy? Actors and their strategies in Austrian asylum legislation , Lit-Verlag, Vienna, 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50093-9 , pp. 50, 52, 101
  30. ↑ Ruth Wodak and Katharina Köhler: Who or what is "foreign"? Discourse-historical analysis of xenophobic rhetoric in Austria (PDF; 3.4 MB). In: Sozialwissenschaftliche Studien 50 , Nr. 1, 2010, 33–55.
  31. ↑ a b Anselm Wagner: “We clean Graz!” On the motif of the street sweeper in political image propaganda . In: Waste modern: to the dirty edges of culture . Lit, Vienna 2010, pp. 271-274, ISBN 978-3-643-50117-2 .
  32. ↑ Article 18 of the Basic Law.
  33. ↑ Peter Zimmermann: The principle of family unity in the asylum law of the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland . Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-428-07054-2 (= writings on European law , volume 6: also dissertation at the University of Cologne 1990), p. 33.