Readers' ideas in demand

Vienna rewrites rules for problem immigrants

What lessons has Austria learned from the refugee crisis since the mass influx in 2015?

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The city of Vienna is drawing up new rules for immigrants. By the end of the year, Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr wants to have a catalog of values ready to which migrants will be bound. The City Councillor for Integration is also relying on the opinion of Krone readers.

Closure of associations that reject our values. Suspending social benefits for those who do not deliver in terms of language. Vienna's Deputy Mayor and City Councillor for Integration Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) already had many ideas for living together with immigrants - especially those who do not want to adapt to our way of life. Now Wiederkehr is having new rules drawn up, not focusing on those who have integrated in an exemplary manner after fleeing to Austria, have a job, pay taxes and live out the peace they have found for their families in Vienna.

New rules from everyone for everyone
But how to deal with "existing and serious problems", as Wiederkehr puts it? What could the "tough consequences look like" that he is calling for? This is what the city council wants to know from the communities, religious communities and politicians. But also from Krone readers, who now have the unique opportunity to contribute to the rules of the game. And this is how the survey works together with the city: you write to us - every email, every letter ends up on the deputy mayor's desk (anonymously if you prefer).

It is exciting to see what the readers will report back.

Vizebürgermeister und Integrationsstadtrat Christoph Wiederkehr

Bild: Lukas Zimmer

Which values are important?
What integration measures can you imagine? What is the best way to teach the German language? Which values are important to you? What rights should immigrants be granted and what duties do they have to fulfill? What is necessary for peaceful coexistence? When should social benefits be cut? And much more. Please send mails with your ideas to: [e-mail]. Or to Kronen Zeitung, Vienna editorial office, Muthgasse 2, 1119 Vienna.

Legal limits

Please note: Vienna has the necessary competencies for integration measures, but not in all matters: The City of Vienna does not regulate who is allowed to come to Austria, nor can it organize deportations.

"Moving forward instead of looking away"
Wiederkehr justifies his initiative by saying that he wants to "lead the way" instead of "looking the other way": by the end of the year, Vienna should have a catalog of values that will then apply to everyone in the city - whether with or without a migration background. Wiederkehr hopes that the values will be enforced through administrative penalties or the reduction of social benefits. However, this would largely require new federal laws.

Back in the fall, Wiederkehr called for binding migration rules for the entire country under the slogan "Principle Austria". Because the federal government did not respond, the deputy mayor in Vienna now wants to create facts.

(Bild: SEPA.Media Martin Juen)

Major "values convention" announced for the fall
For the time being, however, Wiederkehr wants to work out the values first. In addition to feedback from the Krone readership, a study on hatred and agitation among young people and research by the Vienna Integration Council on "basic democratic attitudes and group-related devaluation tendencies in our immigration society", a values convention involving various population and religious groups is to take place in the fall.

According to Wiederkehr, it is precisely through the dialog between all participants that he wants to "say clearly: 'Vienna, we have a problem - we need to talk'." However, the basic values of human dignity, democracy and pluralism are "non-negotiable". Alluding to the "Leitkultur" issue in the ÖVP, Wiederkehr emphasized during the presentation of his ideas that values were important to him and not "folklore: it's not about whether you like brass band music."