"Social welfare condition"

AMS boss: Linking minimum income to place of residence

(Bild: APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER)

In the debate that has been raging for months about the reunification of Syrian children and women and the associated imbalance - almost all families go to Vienna - AMS boss Johannes Kopf is proposing a kind of "social welfare condition". 

The federal states could conclude an agreement that states the following: only the federal state in which the residence was located during the asylum procedure is responsible for providing minimum benefits to refugees.

Keeping people in regions
If they were to move from Tyrol to Vienna, for example, they would no longer receive social benefits there. The refugees would not be able to submit a new application, Kopf explained to "Profil". According to Kopf, this could be regulated via a so-called 15a agreement between the federal states. If the entire family lives on minimum benefits, the losses would be even higher if they moved to Vienna. Conversely, such a "social welfare requirement" could keep people in regions where there is more work and they can get out of the minimum benefit more quickly.

(Bild: Roland Muehlanger)

ÖVP still against residency requirement
The NEOS have been calling for a residency requirement since 2016, which would keep recognized refugees in the first federal state in which they were granted asylum for a period of three years. The Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), is also in favor of this. The ÖVP has so far refused to enter into a debate and considers the federal capital to be solely responsible for the high number of family reunifications.

The social benefits, some of which are significantly higher than in other federal states, would attract more refugees to the capital. In a statement on Saturday, Styrian Governor Christopher Drexler (ÖVP) called for a "new regulation of family reunification for persons entitled to asylum that leads to a clear limitation". Austria and Styria are already more than challenged by migration "from other cultural backgrounds. If hundreds more people are added due to family reunification, this can no longer be managed."

Johannes Pressl, President of the Association of Municipalities, does not agree with the ÖVP party line. He would welcome a residence requirement based on the Swedish model, he said. In Sweden, there is basic support for refugees for three to six months, combined with a residence obligation. He does not believe in tearing people away from a living environment they have been used to for years, but he is convinced: "Integration can generally succeed better in communities and smaller towns if close ties to the village community or even friendships are established."

FPÖ: Linking minimum income to citizenship
For Vienna FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp, Kopf's demand is just "a drop in the ocean". Nepp is convinced that asylum seekers are doing too well in his home town. He is calling for the payment of minimum benefits to be linked to Austrian citizenship and for family reunification to be stopped in general. "Family reunification yes, but only in Syria and Afghanistan," the Vienna FPÖ chairman is quoted as saying in a press release.