Migration is the topic where the gap between public debate and empirical reality is widest. On one side: fearmongering, crime statistics without context, cultural doomsday scenarios. On the other: appeasement, euphemisms, the refusal to call problems by their name.
Both sides serve emotions. Neither serves facts.
The Facts
In 2022 and 2023, Germany each year processed over one million asylum applications and initial registrations. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has an average processing time of 7.6 months. During that time, applicants exist in limbo: no work permit, no integration, no prospects.
Integration costs are estimated at 20 to 30 billion euros annually. At the same time, longitudinal studies show that immigration is fiscally negative in the first 5 years but turns positive from the 10th year onward — if integration succeeds.
The emphasis is on "if."
KIfD's Position
- Asylum procedures completed within 8 weeks. Those who qualify receive protection immediately. Those who do not are informed immediately. The current waiting period is inhumane for everyone involved.
- Immediate work permits from day 1 of residency. Integration begins with participation, not with waiting.
- AI-powered matching systems: aligning asylum seekers' qualifications with open positions and regions experiencing labor shortages — in real time.
- Transparent, quarterly published integration statistics: language acquisition, employment rate, crime rates — differentiated, contextualized, machine-readable.
- No debate without data. KIfD will only make source-based statements on this topic. Every figure will be linked. Every trend will be contextualized.
Migration is neither the problem nor the solution. Migration is a process that must be managed — with data, not with fear.