Hello, everybody.
By now we have already heard a lot of things about the European system of asylum and immigration, so I will make it very short.
The German legislation is influenced by the European legislation—it has to be influenced by it a lot—and therefore I don't want to mention all these subjects again that we have heard about.
I will just start with numbers. In 2011 Germany had 45,000 asylum seekers. This was an increase of 10% compared to the previous year.
As far as national legislation is concerned, I might give you a very rough idea about the structure of our legislation in order to help you shape questions regarding our legal structure.
We make a systematic distinction between regular, legal, and illegal immigration on the one hand and the regulations on asylum seekers on the other hand. That means that only in cases of asylum claims are there special rules that are different from those in the regular regime.
If a person claims asylum, the person falls under a special procedure for the examination of the claim. If there is an appeal regarding the administrative decision on the asylum claim, then there are special modified procedures. Appeals against decisions on asylum cases follow the regular rules of administrative courts in Germany.
In the case of a positive decision on an asylum claim, a person would fall back into the regular immigration regime and would be granted some advantages towards gaining a permanent residence permit, as long as the asylum status is not withdrawn.
In the case of a negative decision, the person falls back into the regular immigration regime as far as deportation is concerned, so there are no special rules as far as asylum seekers are concerned. The same regulations apply as they do to anyone else not staying in the country legally. A person who has applied for asylum might be barred from getting a residence permit in other circumstances, such as under family reunification or as a student in the country. These are negative effects of having claimed asylum unsuccessfully.
This gives you a very rough idea of the German system. We look forward to your detailed questions.