The million Syrians of Germany in the center of a fierce political debate about the future

Throughout Germany the Syrians have been celebrating in the streets the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad. But now many will feel less euphoric, since some politicians question their future in Germany.

In Germany there are about one million people with Syrian passport. Most of them

The atmosphere at that time was that Germany would fix them. The weather is now quite different.

A few hours after the news of Assad’s fall, a fierce political debate in Germany broke out about whether Syrian refugees should return to Syria.

On February 23, early elections will be held in Germany. Since migration leads surveys about voters’ concerns, some politicians clearly feel to talk hard about Syrian refugees will make them win votes.

The hard -line conservatives and extreme right politicians argue that if the Syrians had fled to Germany to escape from Assad, they can now return immediately to Syria.

Some right -wing want to stop granting asylum to people from Syria immediately.

“If the reason for the asylum disappears, there will be no legal basis to remain in the country,” said Markus Söder, conservative leader of Bavaria.

Jens Spahn, an attached leader of the CDU Conservative Parliamentary Group, has suggested chair planes and give the Syrians 1,000 euros (825 pounds sterling) to leave the country.

“Who in Germany celebrates a ‘free Syria’ obviously has no reason to flee,” wrote the leader of the extreme right -wing party AFD, Alice Weidel. “I should return to Syria immediately.”

Sahra Wagenknecht, which this year created a new populist party of extreme left anti -immigration, echoed the AFD rhetoric.

“I hope that the Syrians, who celebrate here the taking of power by the Islamists, return to their country of origin as soon as possible,” he said in an interview with the German magazine Stern.

Meanwhile, left and green politicians have expressed their outrage, qualifying those comments as irresponsible, populist and inappropriate, particularly taking into account how unclear the situation is in Syria.

“Whoever tries to take advantage of the current situation in Syria for their own political ends has lost contact with reality in the Middle East,” said Annalena Baerbock, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany’s Greens.

“No one can predict today – and in the next few days – what will happen in Syria and what that means for security policy.”

Some leftists have been more direct. “All who now begin to talk about deportations to Syria are, and forgiveness for language, simply depraved bastards,” Jan Van Aken, leader of the Radical Left Party Linke, told journalists.

On Monday, the Federal Office of Migration and refugees of Germany suspended all the applications pending Syrian asylum applicants.

This affects 47,270 Syrians in Germany, who expect an answer to their asylum application.

In a written statement to the BBC, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said that it temporarily postponed decisions about Syrian applicants because the situation in Syria was not clear. “In view of the current situation and unpredictable events, a final decision on the result of an asylum procedure cannot be made.”

If the situation stabilizes, officials say, requests will be evaluated again, possibly using different criteria.

The studies show that the Syrians who arrived a decade ago are young, 25 years on average, and tend to have higher levels of education and good employment rates.

Syrian men who arrived in 2015 have higher employment rates than native German men.

Many Syrians work in the health sector, including 5,000 Syrian doctors. If the situation in Syria is unstable, they are unlikely to want to leave.

Many have also received German citizenship, which means that they have learned German and maintained economically: 143,000 Syrians received German citizens between 2021 and 2023, which constitutes the most numerous nationality to obtain a German passport.

But some 700,000 Syrians are still classified as different types of asylum applicants. Some are registered as refugees, others have been granted political asylum, while many have what is called subsidiary protection, which means that their country of origin is not safe.

Freezing decisions on pending applications does not mean that Germany will necessarily stop accepting Syria refugees once the situation is clarified.

And for the moment they should not affect those who have already been granted asylum or refugee status.

But some politicians argue that once the country of origin is no longer dangerous, refugees can return home. In practice, this could mean in many cases withdrawing the current right to remain.

A decade ago Germany opened its arms to the Syrians. Now, the fierce and polarized political debate will only increase the uncertainty that many already feel.