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Developments in Germany in the context of visa liberalisation ,
Source: BAMF
Working Paper 83 examines developments in Germany in the context of visa liberalisation for five Western Balkans countries and for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine between 2007 and 2017.
Visa liberalisation
The visa requirement for the above named states was lifted after approval by the European Parliament and the EU Council and was linked to the successful conclusion of visa liberalisation dialogues with the European Commission. For the third-country nationals concerned, the lifting of the visa requirement for short stays in the Schengen area has above all facilitated short-term mobility, and thus, for example, tourism, visiting family members or business trips. From a legal perspective, this has no impact on the conditions for longer-term immigration.
However, it can be assumed that the facilitation of short-term stays will also lead to other changes relevant to migration, such as an increase in longer-term legal migration or irregular migration. In order to explore this, this study evaluates indicators to depict developments in the area of legal migration and irregular migration.
However, within the present study it is not possible to establish a direct causal link between visa liberalisation and the developments outlined above.
Migration from the visa free countries
The number of new arrivals decreased in all the countries under review (with the exception of Moldova) in the year prior to visa liberalisation and increased thereafter in the case of the Western Balkan countries and Moldova – in the case of Georgia and Ukraine, no developments can be identified at this point. For the Western Balkan countries, the number of asylum applications and residence permits issued for humanitarian reasons increased in the years following visa liberalisation. In the medium term, however, the share of humanitarian immigration has declined and the share of immigration for the purpose of employment has increased.
The abolition of the examination of visa applications creates the potential for misuse of the visa waiver, for example through entry and stay for purposes other than a short stay or through illegal employment during the visa-free stay. In the area of illegal employment, there has been an increase in the number of pre-trial investigations in the years following visa liberalisation.
Measures taken to control immigration
In order to respond to the increased number of asylum applications filed from 2014 onwards, measures were taken in Germany to control asylum immigration: the processing of asylum applications from the Western Balkan countries was prioritised, the visa-free Western Balkan countries were classified as safe countries of origin between 2014 and 2015 and the possibilities for imposing re-entry restrictions were expanded. A number of measures have also been taken to restrict access to the labour market and integration services for people with ‘little prospect to remain’ that also affect accommodation during the asylum process. Measures have also been taken to increase the number of assisted voluntary returns and removals of irregular residents from visa-free countries. With the simplified legal labour migration channel for nationals of the Western Balkan countries, the possibilities for legal immigration in the form of labour migration have also been expanded.
Working Paper 83 was authored as part of the European Migration Network (EMN).
Author of the study: Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik