A Victory of Sorts for Immigration

The country’s first immigration law beat the odds Friday, winning approval in the legislative body many thought would doom it.

For weeks, politicians and observers of every stripe were weighing Germany’s first immigration law’s chances in the Bundesrat, the upper house of Parliament, after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s social democrat-Green coalition government used their majority in Germany’s parliament to push it through.

Interior Minister Otto Schily’s bill needed a minimum of 35 votes in the Bundesrat, the body that represents states on the federal level.

On Friday afternoon, he got it.

Hard-earned victory...

Among the biggest questions were the states of Brandenburg and Bremen, both ruled by a grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and their rival the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Brandenburg state president Manfred Stolpe, of Schröder’s SPD, had been at odds with both his boss and his coalition partner, interior minister Jörg Schönbohm, of the CDU. Stolpe didn’t want to grant Schröder everything and risk a collapse of his coalition government.

Before Friday’s vote, Schönbohm had been issuing vague threats that a yes vote by Brandenburg would violate the coalition contract the two parties signed in 1999 and lead to its collapse.

...But the result is not final

After Stolpe’s yes vote Friday, Schönbohm seemed to back off that threat, choosing in interviews after the vote instead to praise the good work the grand coalition has done.

But it could not be the end of the immigration bill. There was some disagreement as to whether Stolpe could vote yes and Schönbohm no.

The decision in that case goes to the president of the Bundesrat, SPD Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. Wowereit chose Stolpe's vote. The CDU cried foul and walked out of the Bundesrat.

Such a disagreement typically goes before the country’s constitutional court, something CDU politicians say they will undertake if German President Johannes Rau, of the SPD, signs the bill.

The kind of immigration Germany wants

The bill, which has undergone many revisions, presents an immigration policy based on Germany’s economical needs. All parties have come out in favor of policy that limits the number of immigrants flowing into the country to those that can do more for the struggling economy.

The law doesn’t want to set quotas, but rather be flexible enough to fill jobs as they open up. The government allows the children of workers to come to Germany, but only if they’re under 12 years old or face a complicated family situation in their native land, such as the death of their grandparents.

The bill also improves the status of refugees seeking asylum, allowing them to stay for three years and work while their application is examined.

Perhaps the biggest question, integrating the some 7 million foreigners already residing in Germany has yet to be dealt with in concrete terms. Schröder wants to split the costs of "integration" – language classes and an introduction to German history, law and culture – between the states and the federal government.

The German states are absolutely against that, struggling with financial difficulties themselves.