Status: 09.05.2023 6:15 p.m
While the federal and state governments were gambling for money even before today’s meeting, the municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein are worried about housing for refugees and hope for prospects.
It’s about what happens “between the thumb and forefinger”, as Dirk Moritz puts it, Elmshorn’s first city councillor. While the federal and state governments are struggling for the money to look after the refugees, Moritz solves everyday problems on the ground and hopes that the municipalities will get enough money – especially for the integration of refugees.
School, daycare, integration courses – at the moment these topics are still falling behind. At the moment, Moritz is primarily concerned with the question of how to accommodate the refugees: there are 770 in Elmshorn’s municipal accommodations, and there have been 70 since the beginning of the year alone. This also harbors the potential for conflict: As a city, says Moritz, you are with landlords welcome, because the rent will surely come. The downside: “The population complains that there is hardly any living space left.”
That’s why Moritz also hopes for political solutions: an EU-wide, “fair distribution” of refugees, for example. The federal and state governments are sitting together today to discuss the refugee situation. But the fronts are hardened.
“Humanitarian admission must not fail”
The topic was also hotly debated in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament on the day before the federal-state meeting. Lars Harms from the SSW sees the federal government as clearly responsible. “They make the laws, so they can also deliver the money at the same time, if you please. It can’t be that the municipalities are left on their own.”
Cities and municipalities are “at the limit,” says Seyran Papo from the CDU. As a state you make your contribution, now the responsibility lies with the federal government. Green parliamentary group leader Lasse Petersdotter says: “Schleswig-Holstein has always said that humanitarian admission will not fail because of money. The federal government should also have this principle.”
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Losse-Müller: Land is responsible for apartments and daycare places
FDP parliamentary group leader Christopher Vogt would like German migration policy to change course: “We must have faster procedures, we must do something at the EU’s external borders, and we must identify safer countries of origin more clearly so that we have less irregular migration. Because that is our big one problem and that increasingly overwhelms us.”
For the SPD parliamentary group leader Thomas Losse-Müller, it is crucial how more apartments can be built and daycare places created. These are “the really important questions that you can grasp with your hands – and for which the country is responsible.” Of course, the question of finances must also be clarified, says Losse-Müller. And he is confident that it will succeed.
Municipal Day: Old calculations have to be put to the test
According to the Ministry of Finance, Schleswig-Holstein received 149.6 million euros from the federal government last year for taking in refugees. This year it is almost 94 million euros, for the coming year 42.7 million euros are estimated. There will no longer be separate funds for Ukraine refugees from 2024 onwards.
The number of refugees seeking protection in Schleswig-Holstein was 39,000 last year. This year, from January to March, there were 4,000. The managing director of the Schleswig-Holstein municipal council, Jörg Bülow, finds figures that require a rethink. “A main problem of the current discussion” is that the federal government has only promised the federal states a fixed sum from the sales tax revenue. “But in the meantime, many more refugees have come than was calculated at the time,” says Bülow.
Countries are calling for a financial rethink
Bülow therefore considers the demands of the federal states for dynamic payments – that is, depending on the number of refugees – to be justified. The sales tax revenue is one of two instruments with which the federal government (which according to the constitution is not allowed to transfer money directly to the districts, cities and municipalities) can relieve the municipalities.
The other instrument are the costs for accommodation: “In principle, the accommodation costs in SGB 2 are borne by the districts and urban districts. The federal government contributes more than 60 percent to these costs and can easily increase this share of the costs and thus relieve the municipalities. ” According to Bülow, the state has also upped the ante, so that the total reimbursement rate is currently 90 percent.
Refugees soon in container villages or gyms?
Bülow now hopes that today’s negotiations will be successful. “We expect very clear and reliable medium- to long-term answers from the federal and state governments as soon as possible on how this should work in the long term,” he says. The negotiations must finally “come to a resounding conclusion”.
Dirk Moritz in Elmshorn hopes so too. “It’s getting tight now,” he says, referring to the apartments for refugees. “We’ll get by until the fall, and then we’ll really have to consider whether to accommodate people in container villages or, if necessary, even in gymnasiums.”
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