Humane Policy Under Siege

Germany’s laudably generous policy of granting asylum to anyone suffering from political persecution may be headed for change, following unexpectedly strong showings by far-right parties in regional parliamentary voting.

In the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg the Republican Party, led by a former Nazi SS soldier, took nearly 11% of the vote in last Sunday’s balloting; four years ago it won just 1%. In Schleswig-Holstein in the north the even more extreme German People’s Union won 6.6% of the vote. Both parties capitalized on frustrations over the rising and increasingly costly wave of foreigners seeking asylum in Germany. In the elections’ aftermath, shaken leaders of the two major parties, Christian Democratic Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Bjoern Engholm of the Social Democrats, are talking about the need for a new consensus on immigration.

The issue is one that agitates much of Western Europe and that has helped contribute to a rebirth of right-wing activism in France, Austria and Switzerland. More open borders, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and--as always--the lure of prosperity have set off a great new wave of migration. Last year nearly 260,000 people claimed political asylum in Germany; this year 400,000 more are expected. Processing their applications can take years, during which time they are cared for at local expense.

The situation is not unfamiliar to the United States, which also draws a sharp distinction between political and economic refugees. Up to now Germany’s Social Democrats have resisted a constitutional change to tighten the asylum law. With national elections scheduled in 1994 all that could change. Both parties see Sunday’s voting as a sign of protest rather than as basic support for the far right. But a protest vote counts the same as a vote cast for any other reason. The challenge facing the mainstream political parties is how to preserve the essence of a humane immigration policy without providing further fuel for the far right.