On the draft bill of the Federal Government on tolerated asylum-seekers being in training and employment : Statement of the IAB on the public hearing in the Committee for Internal Affairs and Community of the German Bundestag on June 3, 2019

Abstract

"This statement refers to the public hearing in the Committee for Internal Affairs and Community of the German Bundestag at 3 June 2019 on the Federal Government's draft bill on tolerated asylum seekers being in training and employment. The Federal Government's draft law introduces the term 'training toleration'. In principle, this provision allows toleration during the training period for asylum-seekers and tolerated persons. This applies to vocational training in a state-recognised or comparably regulated training occupation. For the first time a 'training toleration' is to be introduced also to assistant training if it can be connected to qualified vocational training in a bottleneck occupation, and if there is a training place commitment for such a qualified vocational training position. However, the toleration of training is linked to demanding requirements, which would considerably restrict the group of eligible applicants. As toleration is not a residence permit, legal uncertainty continues. It would make more sense to issue a temporary residence permit subject to determined conditions. This would provide the necessary legal certainty for employers and for those who make use of it. The draft law continues to introduce the provision of 'toleration of employment'. This is granted for a period of 30 months if a number of conditions such as the need to earn a living, knowledge of German proficiency or proof of gainful employment subject to social insurance with at least 35 hours per week in the last 18 months are met. The criteria for employment toleration are reasonable and correspond to what can be expected from well-integrated persons. The use of the 30-month toleration is likely to be low because it does not provide long-term legal certainty either for the persons concerned or for the employer. The fundamental alternative would be an actual 'lane change', i.e. the granting of a temporary residence permit whose extension would be subject to determined conditions. This would create the necessary legal certainty for all parties and a way to transit to the regular right of residence. In order to prevent alleged 'pull effects', the instrument of 'a reference date regulation' would have been appropriate, i.e. this regulation would have been introduced for persons who moved to Germany before a certain date (e.g. 31 December 2017). The motions of the different parliamentary groups in the Bundestag make partly more far-reaching proposals to reorganize the law concerning asylum as well as the management of humanitarian migration. The parliamentary groups of the FDP, Bündnis 90/Die GRÜNEN and DIE LINKE are proposing a 'lane change' from the asylum or a temporary humanitarian protection status into a labour migrant status. In contrast to the proposal of the FDP, the criteria and conditions for such a 'lane change' are not set out in more detail in the proposals of the parliamentary groups of Bündnis 90/DIE GRÜNEN and DIE LINKE." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Brücker, H., Jaschke, P., Keita, S. & Konle-Seidl, R. (2019): Zum Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung über Duldung bei Ausbildung und Beschäftigung sowie zu den Anträgen der Fraktionen der FDP, Bündnis 90/DIE GRÜNEN und DIE LINKE. Stellungnahme des IAB zur Anhörung im Ausschuss für Inneres und Heimat des Deutschen Bundestags am 3. Juni 2019. (IAB-Stellungnahme 07/2019), Nürnberg, 12 p.