According to a recent survey by Infratest for the ARD’s “Deutschlandtrend” a majority of Germans (57 percent) believe it is right to deny entry to Germany to people without a valid entry permit. For one-third of respondents (33 percent), this measure would be going in the wrong direction.
The decision is not legally binding but expresses support for turning back people without valid entry permits at the country’s borders, even if they want to file an asylum application in Germany. Moreover, the current temporary border controls with all neighboring countries are to be made permanent.
Two-thirds of Germans (67 percent) consider permanent border controls to be right, while a quarter (27 percent) think they are wrong. Two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) are of the opinion that Germany should take in fewer refugees than currently, with one-fifth (22 percent) advocating for the same number of refugees as now and three percent in favor of taking in more.
In general, six out of ten Germans (61 percent) consider a European solution for asylum policy to be the most sensible, while a third (31 percent) prefer a national solution. However, five out of six Germans (85 percent) believe that the state is currently not doing a good or better job in controlling who and how many newcomers come to the Federal Republic, with one in ten (9 percent) thinking the state is doing a good job.
Last week, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who had been rejected shot and killed a child and an adult in Aschaffenburg. The perpetrator had previously committed a crime in Germany and was in psychiatric treatment, with his planned deportation to Bulgaria not being carried out.
For a third of respondents (31 percent), the discussion about immigration to Germany has been overdone since the Aschaffenburg incident, a third (32 percent) think it has not been discussed enough and for 29 percent, the topic has received the right amount of attention.
According to the Germans, the topic of psychotherapeutic and psychiatric treatment in Germany would have deserved more attention: for every two people (51 percent), the topic has not been discussed enough since the Aschaffenburg incident, for one in five (19 percent) it has been discussed the right amount and for one in six (16 percent) it has been overdone.
Half of the respondents (50 percent) also think that the topic of general crime prevention in Germany is not being discussed enough, with a quarter (27 percent) thinking it is being discussed the right amount and one in six (16 percent) thinking it is being overdone.
Moreover, for 44 percent of the respondents, the discussion about the implementation of decided deportations is not being held enough, for 28 percent it is being held the right amount and for one in five (21 percent) it is being overdone.
The survey, conducted by Infratest, questioned a total of 1,336 people from January 27 to 29, 2025, with the majority of the survey taking place before the Bundestag’s decision on Wednesday, which passed a motion by the Union with a narrow majority.