More than 11.000 Portuguese who have emigrated to Germany in search of a better life now face extradition.
The news comes as Berlin approves new laws to clamp down on what it calls “social tourism”.
The laws involve withdrawing residency for any Europeans who have been in Germany without work for more than six months.
They also target benefit fraudsters – among them thought to be scores if not hundreds of Portuguese.
Económico online explains the situation.
In May this year, 11,449 Portuguese were resident in Germany receiving the “basic benefit for people seeking work”, while 5,564 were on the official list of the country’s unemployed.
Outlining that the main thrust of the immigration reform involved extraditing long-term unemployed, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said another aspect was expelling people found “abusing” social services. This latter plan has been devised to counter immigrants who claim for children that they don’t even have living with them, de Maizière said.
Berlin is said to “fear that there is a large element of fraud among children declared by immigrants” – but as Económico points out, of the 30,454 Portuguese children registered in Germany, only 1,019 are believed not to be resident with their parents.
Child benefit in Germany – unlike its counterpart in Portugal – increases with numbers. Parents receive 184 euros per month per child, increasing to 190 euros for a third child and 214 euros for a fourth.
For Portuguese who have effectively lost child benefit altogether in the economic crisis in their own country, this kind of benefit in itself could act as a huge attraction for immigration.
But, as Angela Merkel said in May: “The European Union is not a social union”.
“Free circulation is an indispensable part of European integration but we cannot close our eyes to the problems it can cause”, de Mazière added.
Germany’s new policies are in line with changes to immigration laws already adopted in UK and Switzerland.
