Bishops call for new law to control immigration

The German bishops have called for a new immigration law that takes account of the “different motives” of people attempting to enter Germany, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

Speaking to journalists after the autumn meeting of the Bishops’ Conference, its president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, said it was important to recognise that many people using the asylum routes to get into the country wanted to come to Germany for economic reasons.

Last year the “open door” policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel prompted the arrival of more than one million migrants. While the policy received public support at the time, it has lost Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union votes in recent regional elections, with anti-immigration parties making significant advances.

The bishops want to see a new immigration law as Germany is now “clearly” an immigration country, Cardinal Marx said. According to the cardinal, Germany’s 27 dioceses had spent at least €79.5 million (£69 million) on help for refugees in the first seven months of 2016; €52m were spent on projects in Germany and €27m had been sent to crisis regions abroad. These figures did not include the amount of money the religious orders and Catholic associations had spent on refugees nor the accommodation for 28,000 refugees in 1,381 church buildings.

The bishops would continue to support European integration and political union  despite the Brexit vote, Marx said. As public support for further European integration was waning, they expected a “debate on the future of Europe”.