Life Paused: A Two-Year Pause on Family Reunification for Subsidiary Refugees Sparks Concerns
EU and SPD reach accord on enacting fresh refugee control strategies
Get ready for some hard-hitting facts, folks! This Friday, the Bundestag, at the Union and SPD's behest, is set to halt the family reunification process for individuals with subsidiary protection status for two long years. And let me tell you, this decision is stirring up quite a storm!
If there was one controversial decision that could possibly rock the still new coalition of the Union and SPD, it's this: "We will temporarily halt family reunification for subsidiarily protected persons for two years." Few other statements in the coalition agreement riled up the Jusos and older SPD leftists as much. Before the SPD member survey on the coalition agreement, social democratic opponents used this exact statement as an argument against voting yay on the coalition – but they still lost by a landslide. Around 85% of participants voted in favor of teaming up with Friedrich Merz as Chancellor. On this Friday morning, the Bundestag will vote on the halt of family reunification.
So, who does this decisions impacts? Primarily, it affects around 1,000 people who are allowed to come to Germany each month – mainly children, spouses, or parents of someone with subsidiary protection status already residing in Germany. Most come from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Subsidiarily protected persons are the largest group of legally residing refugees in Germany and can stay as long as there is war in their home country or they face persecution as members of a specific ethnic group.
Political Maneuvers and the Red-Black Coalition
Politics, eh? An informal meeting in Brussels saw Merz joining the club of EU migration hardliners. Even the traffic light coalition had started to noticeably reduce access numbers, for instance by ramping up border controls. This trend has continued: around 8,000 first-time asylum applications in May 2025 corresponds to a whopping 50% decrease from the previous year. In May 2023, the number was around 22,000. All the previous twelve months show significantly lower values than in the respective preceding month. Irregular migration, my friends, is on a downward spiral. Now, the coalition wants to tackle legal migration as well. Because, you see, those who enter through family reunification are screened and come to the country with an official visa – usually by plane.
With the expected government majority for the halt of family reunification for at least two years, these 24,000 people will no longer be able to join their loved ones legally in Germany. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, led by CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt, argues in the draft bill that access numbers should be based on reception capacities. Because many municipalities are overburdened with the accommodation and integration of migrants, it's necessary to reduce the numbers, according to the black-red coalition. However, the extent of this overburdening is hotly debated. Greens and Leftists bring up the effect of falling access numbers – for example, in the form of empty or at least not fully utilized refugee accommodations.
The "Family Destruction Law"
The human rights organization "Pro Asyl" refers to this law as the "Family Destruction Law." People residing in Germany will find their integration process more challenging if they are forced to fend for themselves and continue worrying about their stranded relatives. There's also a risk that the affected individuals, desperate after years of being stuck in the application process for family reunification, may resort to dangerous illegal refugee routes to Germany. The law doesn't have a cut-off date: Those who have been in the process for months may now fall out of the system, just like those who have yet to apply. Critics perceive the exceptions provided for hardship cases as nothing more than lip service: This became evident during the suspension of family reunification between 2016 and 2018, with the total number of exceptions being in the low three-digit range.
Divided Voices and the Election Aftermath
Advocates of the suspension argue that family reunification sets an incentive for fleeing to Germany: only one person needs to make it across the Mediterranean, so the rest can fly in later. Green Euro MP Erik Marquardt commented on the formula in the coalition agreement in April: "Asylum-politically, the AfD has prevailed in the negotiations between CDU, CSU, and SPD." The SPD's left-wing will have been stung by the categorization of well-known sea rescue programs advocates and a fundamentally humanitarian EU asylum policy as falling beyond their own party. Yet, after the debacle in the February election, a majority in the SPD has adopted a stance that, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's Interior Minister Christian Pegel expressed in April at an SPD discussion event on the members' vote: "The positioning of many people – who have incidentally often voted SPD for decades – on this issue is significantly different from what we sometimes hope." In other words, the SPD no longer feels any support among voters for generous immigration policy – especially not from its own base.
But hey, don't take my word for it! The Left is opposing the bill with its own resolution on Friday. This demands that the federal government, among other things, "abandon plans to halt family reunification for subsidiary protection beneficiaries" and instead expand family reunification through quicker procedures – especially for minors on the brink of adulthood. The Left's request for a roll-call vote has irked the SPD. This is unpleasant because the Left and the Greens could grill SPD candidates about their voting behavior on the family reunification issue in future elections. Above all, however, it's inconvenient because the factions must now appear as united as possible in the Bundestag for the vote. Given the SPD federal party conference starting in the early afternoon, the Social Democrats actually have other things to do – and the Left has broken an unwritten rule, SPD faction manager Dirk Wiese has grumbled. So, the halt of family reunification is causing trouble for the SPD – just not the kind they were expecting in the spring.
Until next time, grab your popcorn because this political drama is far from over!
References: ntv.de, RNW, and Amnesty International
- SPD
- The Left
- Alliance 90/The Greens
- Migration
- Immigration
- Black-Red
- The temporary halt on family reunification for subsidiary refugees, as part of the community policy, is causing controversy, especially among the Jusos and older SPD leftists, who perceive it as a move towards stricter immigration policies similar to that of EU migration hardliners.
- The political maneuvers surrounding family reunification policies are influencing the immigration landscape in Germany, as a proposed two-year pause on family reunification could potentially lead to increased irregular migration due to the desperation of affected individuals who may resort to dangerous illegal refugee routes.
