The Interior Ministry’s decision to halt integration courses was apparently made without consulting the SPD. “There was no coordination with us on the topic of integration courses” said Hakan Demir, the SPD’s deputy spokesperson for integration policy, during an interview with “Tagesspiegel”. “We were not involved”.
Demir called the minister’s choice a “catastrophe” and added, “I do not understand why costs are now being cut on the sole policy item that concerns integration and participation”. He noted that the money for the current year has already been allocated in the budget.
He warned that the number of people who have come to and are living in Germany has not dramatically fallen, so “the need remains”. At the same time, millions of people will exit the labour market in the coming years, Demir said, emphasizing that “we need people who stay and support us”.
The Greens also criticized the move. Marcel Emmerich, the Green Party’s spokesperson on domestic policy, told “Tagesspiegel” that it is hypocritical to demand integration while simultaneously stalling integration courses. “Alexander Dobrindt is becoming Germany’s greatest rejecter of integration in blocking these programmes” Emmerich said.
Emmerich pointed out that investments in integration courses have historically paid off by promoting language skills, employment, participation and social cohesion. “Simply citing limited funds is wrong when the Interior Ministry, with its reform of the debt brake, actually has considerable new leeways” he added. “With these cuts the minister exacerbates the very problems he loudly rages against. Instead of making integration a priority, he is closing the most effective instruments”.