German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government has agreed on a law that will punish asylum seekers who do not integrate while allowing them the chance of better employment opportunities.
A package of measures agreed in the early hours of Thursday, and set to be approved by cabinet on May 24, would see asylum seekers in Germany lose some benefits if they do not participate in integration courses including language classes and education in German values.
In some cases, residence permits could be denied to those who refuse to participate, according to the AFP.
At the same time, the government is proposing to temporarily suspend a law that requires employers to give preference to German or EU job applicants over asylum seekers.
"The other challenge is to register and achieve the integration of the large number of people who have arrived here," Merkel told reporters.
"We will have a German national law on integration — this is the first time in post-war Germany that this has happened, it is an important, qualitative step."
The reforms, announced jointly by Merkel and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday, follow months of behind-the-scenes wrangling between Merkel's center-right CDU and their center-left coalition partners the SPD. The Die Welt newspaper called the package "remarkably hard," and reported that the more liberal SPD had been forced to back down on its resistance to some of the measures.
Christine Langenfeld, Chairman of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, said in a statement that she supported the aims of the law, but cautioned that the government had to ensure it supplied enough information to asylum seekers and provided enough courses to allow them to participate easily
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