Karner/Plakolm:

Plakolm: “Family reunification puts a strain on our systems”

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (both ÖVP)

(Bild: APA/Roland Schlager)

Austria's three-party coalition has agreed to suspend family reunification for migrants. Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) said that reception capacities were limited and family reunification was putting a strain on the school system, among other things.

As reported, there were 7762 arrivals of family members entitled to protection in the previous year, most of them minors. The number of applications was slightly higher at 8234. The temporary suspension of family reunification was announced for Wednesday. Increased controls and DNA tests had already led to a decrease in applications, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP).

"If we don't stop family reunification, we won't be able to manage it," said Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) at a press conference on Tuesday. The Austrian systems have their limits. It does not help anyone if, for example, the school system is overloaded. According to Plakolm, in Vienna, Graz, Linz and Salzburg, every second primary school child already speaks a language other than German. In addition, many migrants are not literate at all - even adults.

Karner also cited the overburdening of the health and social system as well as the higher level of youth crime as arguments for stopping family reunification. Karner and Plakolm are convinced that this would help to facilitate integration.

"Those who live with us must learn German and work"
Those who live with us must learn German and work, said the minister. Currently, 48,000 persons entitled to asylum and subsidiary protection (e.g. refugees from Ukraine, note) are unemployed or in training. This is "alarming". The state already has a lot to do and problems to overcome, even without further family reunification.

Strict, sometimes radical views are becoming increasingly popular.

Integrationsministerin Claudia Plakolm

"Reunification is a pull factor (incentives to come to Austria, ed.) that we feel very strongly in all areas of society. And it is also leading to migrant communities forming ever stronger parallel societies," said Plakolm on Tuesday. Among other things, she referred to the fact that radical views such as the fasting of Muslim children during Ramadan were becoming increasingly popular.

In the upcoming Council of Ministers on Wednesday, the so-called emergency clause is to be adopted at European level and national regulations adapted.