• Germany edition
Society
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Court: Refugees must have the bare minimum

Published: 18 Jul 12 10:42 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120718-43823.html

Asylum seekers and war refugees in Germany have been promised a better level of state support by the Constitutional Court - which ruled on Wednesday morning they must get around the same as those on basic unemployment benefits.

Currently those who have fled their home countries and made it to Germany are given around €220 a month to live from, a sum that has not changed since 1993.

This was challenged by the state social court in North Rhine-Westphalia which questioned whether that amount was enough for an adult to live on.

And on Wednesday morning Ferdinand Kirchhof, the Constitutional Court’s vice president agreed, saying the €220 evidently missed the minimum needed.

He said the most basic state support for unemployed adults in Germany known as Hartz IV had been set at being the minimum necessary for an adult to survive on – and that is €364 a month.

It is now to be expected that the amount given to asylum seekers and refugees will be increased to something approaching the Hartz IV rate.

During 2010, there were 130,000 people in Germany to whom this would apply, according to figures from the Federal Statistics Office.

DPA/The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

12:17 July 18, 2012 by raandy
What? no free bicycle.
13:25 July 18, 2012 by Anth2305
It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the cash sustaining this EU wide Ponzi scheme, eventually runs out.
18:54 July 18, 2012 by SuperAuslaender
The German court gave the Germans one more reason to hate foreigners.
23:56 July 18, 2012 by losenot@facebook.com
Hating foreigners is the most primitive thing anyone can do. Do this haters ever reason that German citizens have ever settled anywhere else in the world? And what if the same attitude is meted on them, how would they feel? The world has become a small place and almost every peaceful, prosperous country in the world now is full of foreigners and no-one can stop it. Furthermore, Germans are not reproducing themselves, and unless the foreigners fill their gap, soon the economy will fall when the present ones die without anyone to replace them, their companys will close down as is the case with many cities becoming ghost cities. It is also inhuman to have enough food on the table while your neighbour sleeps hungry because he is a foreigner.
04:34 July 19, 2012 by janreg58
Losenot, I understand what you're saying about having alot of food on your table while your neighbor has none, but there has to come a time when you have to say "NO" . People tend to take advantage of good hearted people. They tend to expect it from you, and when you don't give anymore they call you a racist and prejudice! The reason Germans aren't reproducing is because they have to work to pay taxes to pay for all the programs provided for these foreigners!! And yes, there are Germans in other countries, but they don't expect to be taken care of like alot of immigrants do, it's like they aren't even there! If they don't like the laws in Germany, then they need to go back to their own country. Immigrants today are different then the immigrants of old, they aren't greatful to those countries that take them in, they just want all that they can get, and then that's not enough!!
08:04 July 19, 2012 by losenot@facebook.com
Janreg, believe me no immigrant is comfortable with hand outs, they would very much wish to be allowed to work and eat their sweat, pay taxes like any other german of which they are not allowed. Yes germans in the other countries don't expect to be taken care of because they are allowed to work. Even the animals you keep in your houses, you give them food if you dont allow them to go hunting. And now that you give an excuse for not reproducing and just as well telling the foreigners to go back, what solution do you have for the germany economy that will be affected by lack of employees in the near future. We already have a number of them closing down due to lack of sales e.g schlecker, Neckermann, Airlines, trains just to name a few. Factories will soon lack employees as you who live die without sons to take over. Think about it.
09:05 July 19, 2012 by BobbyBaxter
LOSENOT - what on earth are you talking about. The German economy is the most powerful in Europe and has been for the past 30 or so years and will continue to be so for the next 30+. Trust me, people around the world will continue to buy BMWs, Mercedes, VW's, Audis, Siemens, Bosch etc etc. The only thing that will bring the German economy down are the certain weak willed nations of Europe that are dragging the Euro down. To equate this story to the state of the German economy is ludicris. It is bleading heart liberals = economic decline.
09:09 July 19, 2012 by losenot@facebook.com
And furthermore Janreg, what is easier? to stay at home and let the foreigner work for you while you reproduce or you to work for the foreigner and then complain that you had no time to reproduce because you were busy working for the foreigner.
16:27 July 19, 2012 by yourkeau
@janreg58

"If they don't like the laws in Germany, then they need to go back to their own country."

The problem is that it is YOU who don't like the laws in Germany, in particular Vienna convention on refugees, which Germany has signed and is obliged to comply, i.e. accept refugees who's life is in danger in their own countries and provide them basic needs for living.

If you don't like this, elect another government who will withdraw Germany's signature from this convention. I would like to see, how this will affect German economy.
16:28 July 20, 2012 by theloudbloke
Some people on here don't understand the asylum system and simple economics.

Asylum - if you seek asylum, you cannot work. Only after asylum request is approved can you work. Therefore the host state must pay for the asylum seeker to maintain an adequate life during the waiting period. Or are people here suggesting they should be allowed to work immediately so that they are not a drain on the state??

Yes the export market for German goods remains relatively strong, but if Germany runs out of workers then they can have all the demand they like. Check out the German birth rate and demograph, there is already a shortage of engineers and skilled workers, the rot has already started.

Intolerance is an abhorent condition, I think most Germans are very tolerant the people who tend to be intolerant are usually the people who don't realise how immigration will enrich German society. These are the narrow minded people who usurped power 80 years ago. I don't think anybody would realistically want them back.
05:36 July 21, 2012 by janreg58
Bobbybaxter is the only one with a good head on his shoulders! Losenot, I just don't like the idea of Germany turning into the USA!! I know, I know, where would the USA be without it's immigrants? The old immigrants of Europe made the USA what it was, the new immigrants have turned it into what it is now, a melting pot of handouts, and programs that the working citizens have to pay for, and I am sick and tired of it! Germanys is still thriving because they have stood strong on their beliefs and laws, and they shouldn't give in to the bleeding heart liberals because it will be the downfall of the country!! Yourkeau, did it ever cross your mind that maybe they are obliging to the Vienna convention, because they don't want to look "Bad" in the worlds eyes because of what happened 80 years ago, and not because they REALLY want to?
17:08 July 23, 2012 by rwk
I wonder when Germany will start accepting asylum-seekers from the USA. Well, perhaps they will start accepting the niqab wearing ones, which will be convenient way to get into the country.
10:54 July 24, 2012 by George Palmer
I live on Malta and we have been invaded by thousands of sub Saharan africans. The streets of Valetta are filled with idle illegal immigrants because the detention centres are filled to capacity. It is time these people were sent back from where they came. It seems it isn't enough for Europe to send billions in aid to these countries. Now half the third world wants to move into Europe. What really irritates me are the do good, wolley jumper brigade who support these idlers. Illegal immigrants are holding the tax payer to ransom, creating a crime wave, lying about their true origins and bleeding our little islands financial and medical resources. Enough is now enough. Push them back.
12:35 July 24, 2012 by Anth2305
The bottom line is that when the rations start to run seriously low on the lifeboat of prosperity, then any semblance of tolerance and civilised behaviour among its crew will start to rapidly diminish as well.

In fact, I think we've already seen a portent of that happening with Greece's 'Golden Dawn' party, threatening to 'throw immigrants and their children out of increasingly scarce hospital beds'.
07:07 July 25, 2012 by wenddiver
How many European Union countries do the assylum seekers pass through, before getting to Germany and deciding the country look rich enough to ask for assylum? These are not the right kind of emmigrants. Welfare sponges come to suck the blood of Grmamy's working class, I would guess.
23:36 July 26, 2012 by Swag2TZ
Everybody is correct here. Close the borders.........stay in your own country. Lets keep it real........Germany can't take care of all these auslanders.
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