Public services and city finances have been stretched to unsustainable levels to accommodate a record number of asylum seekers and local governments need urgent federal relief, General Manager of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities (DStGB), André Berghegger, has said.
Image Credit: Dan Kitwood / Staff / Getty
Speaking to the Editorial Network Germany (RND), Berghegger emphasized the growing strain on municipal resources. “We lack the financial, personnel, and spatial capacities to accommodate even more people,” he stated, highlighting the urgent need to reduce the influx of asylum seekers.
“It is important for the municipalities that the number of asylum seekers decreases significantly. We urgently need a breath,” he added.
Municipalities continue to struggle with the financial burden of hosting those already within their jurisdictions and more newcomers are arriving every day. Berghegger pointed out the stark discrepancy between federal funding and the actual costs incurred by local governments.
“The federal government pays €7,500 per capita. However, the real costs for accommodation, supply, and integration are between €15,000 to €20,000 per person per year. The costs for daycare centers and schools have not yet been included,” he explained.
As a long-standing member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former Bundestag representative, Berghegger urged the federal government to at least double its flat rate for refugee admissions to bridge the funding gap.
Beyond financial concerns, Berghegger advocated for more centralized federal authority over deportation procedures. “Deportations often fail due to the confusion of responsibility and complicated periods of time. The federal government urgently has to take on more responsibility,” he said.
The Social Democrat-led federal government, like its CDU predecessor has overseen record immigration waves into Germany over the past decade, leading to a rise in right-wing populism expected to see the Alternative for Germany (AfD) challenge the CDU for the largest party in the Bundestag in the federal election on Feb. 23.
Remix News reported on Thursday how the latest security report from the Allensbach Institute, a private polling service that compiles an annual report on how safe Germans feel, found just 60 percent of Germans now feel safe in their own country. Between 2019 and 2022, the figure fell between 71 percent and 82 percent.
One key reason for the lack of security is the rise in migration with 81 percent of the German population saying that too many refugees now live in the country. In former East German states, that figure reaches 95 percent.
Berghegger suggested that federal and state governments revise their distribution strategies for asylum seekers. He proposed that only individuals with a clear prospect of being granted residency should be assigned to local municipalities. “People who do not receive the right to stay could more easily be returned to their home countries if they are housed in central state institutions,” he said.
One issue the government has, however, is that by not picking up asylum seekers at the border and refusing access, they often arrive without any documentation, having ditched their ID and making it impossible to determine where they should be returned to.
As huge numbers of migrants continue to enter Germany this year, a record number of them have no identification papers, making deporting these newcomers a near-impossible task.
In June last year, Remix News reported how 57 percent of asylum seekers — up from 48 percent in 2023 — had no identification to prove their identity, their age, or their country of origin, according to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
Protests have taken place across the country at a local level against municipalities erecting new asylum accommodations in order to comply with federal obligations.
Some local leaders have fought back against the federal government’s expectations, including Gachenbach mayor Alfred Lengler who ordered all asylum homes be torn down after two African migrants attacked several elderly women during a funeral service for the town fire chief.
After 2 African migrants attacked several elderly women during a funeral service for the town fire chief, Gachenbach mayor Alfred Lengler has all asylum homes torn down.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 5, 2025
The German mayor also refuses to accept any more migrants:
"I'm not obliged to take in a single refugee." pic.twitter.com/cylBF3nsYH
