Austrians want to put immigrants distant for refusing integration

Austria takes on immigrant integration. Those visitors who do not attend dedicated assimilation classes will pay the fine – or they will go to jail.

The Austrian government has prepared a bill that strengthens the work to integrate migrants. Visitors who avoid going to German language and culture classes will gotta pay a fine of up to EUR 5000. If they refuse, they go to jail for 3 weeks.

The task is supported by the Minister for Integration, Claudia Bauer of the Chadetic organization ÖVP, who co-creates the Austrian government. As she stressed, the voluntary commitment failed: if migrants are not forced to integrate, they avoid it. There are presently 48,000 asylum seekers in the country who do not work at all. The authorities want to change that, precisely by forcing them to participate in integration activities.

The bill provides for very different punishment thresholds, depending on the degree of avoidance of compulsory classes. The authorities hope that penalties will be severe adequate to effectively force immigrants to start integration.

The problem is the opposition to the left. Chadecka ÖVP does not regulation alone, but creates a cabinet together with the Social Democratic SPÖ and Liberal Neos. These parties are, of course, opposed to a stronger integration of visitors. Chadece had a chance to establish a coalition with the right-wing FPÖ in 2025, but she did not want to decide to do so due to the fact that she would gotta hand over the Chancellorship to her.

Now Minister Bauer is trying to convince left-wing colleagues in the government to adopt the project. Most Austrians would surely applaud him, due to the fact that the problems with integrating immigrants are 1 of the country's biggest social problems.

Source: jungefreiheit.de

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