"These groups should be separated, if possible. But there's another aspect, which is important: These asylum seekers, mostly men, cannot — under our laws — work and [they] get welfare money. This is a monotonous live. If we abolished all these entitlements and allowed them to work, they would not sit disinterested in these hostels and develop irrational ideas. This would detente the situation," Ronald Glaser said.
In his view, the migrants should be allowed to work "from day one," meaning that both the asylum seekers whose application had already been approved and those who are still in the process would be able to make a living in Germany.
Furthermore, according to Glaser, there are no legal obstacles for this proposal to be adopted, but "[the German] government of course won't abandon the welfare programs, because they want to increase socialism instead of reduce it."
He also rejected the idea that granting asylum seekers the right to work in Germany could cause a backlash from the German public or that the refugees could be accused of "stealing jobs" from the German citizens.
In 2015, Germany declared an open-door refugee policy, becoming one of the key destinations for migrants coming to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa. According to the country's Interior Ministry, the number of refugees that came to Germany in 2016 amounted to some 280,000, compared to 890,000 arrivals in 2015. The majority of asylum seekers arriving in Germany are from Syria or Afghanistan.
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