Tougher Laws Opposed

Refugee welfare organizations, the German trade union federation, representatives of the Turkish community, the opposition Greens party and the Left Party are among the groups who have spoken out against possible changes to German immigration law.

The proposed measures range from fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,323) for immigrants who do not attend obligatory integration courses to the deportation of people who stop members of their family integrating into German society.

There are also plans to require wives or husbands joining their spouses in Germany to demonstrate basic German language skills and to stop any children from entering Germany as a spouse.

Dialogue threatened

The chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, Kenan Kolat, said the proposed legislation threatened to torpedo the dialogue on integration initiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

North Rhine-Westphalia's commissioner for integration, Klaus Lefringhausen, criticized plans to deport immigrants deemed to be acting in ways "antagonistic to the process of integration."

He said such behavior was very difficult to define and that the proposed legislation allowed too much scope for personal interpretation on the part of individual civil servants.

"The boundaries are very blurred," Lefringhausen told DW-WORLD.DE. "It is very imprecise. The world-view of individual civil servants could play a fateful role."

Pressure counterproductive

Lefringhausen also questioned whether the planned changes would have the effect intended.

"I think it is a major political mistake to believe that attitudes can be changed by pressure from outside," he said. "Whoever puts migrants under pressure will experience counter-pressure. The politics of the iron fist is not an intelligent form of politics."

The changes are part of amendments to German immigration law to bring it into line with EU regulations.

Other proposals to give residence permits to illegal immigrants whose presence has been tolerated up to now are also creating differences of opinion within the government.

Uncertain future

There are around 200,000 people living in Germany with this precarious status. Under the proposed plans, these migrants would be allowed to stay if they can demonstrate that they are able to support themselves financially, though there are disagreements on how long they should be given to find a job.

State interior ministers decided at a meeting in November that the deadline should be set at September, but the federal government wants to give the migrants until 2009.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said he plans to set up a committee to resolve these differences.