Why Not Let Them Work?

BERLIN. There is no such thing as a typical "illegal" among Germany's illegal immigrants. Many are living, and working, openly. Whereas the large Turkish population that came to this country for the most part legally is seen by many as a classic example of failed integration, thousands of other foreigners have integrated seamlessly despite their lack of residency status.

According to experts working for the Catholic Church, there are some 1 million illegal immigrants in this country, with at least 200,000 in Berlin alone. But probably the only time most Germans give them much thought is when one is the subject of crime-related news coverage, as is currently the case with "Eva," a young Ukrainian testifying against the man she accuses of forcing her into prostitution.

Like a number of other foreign prostitutes willing to testify against her pimp, she has been offered a permanent residency visa, a practice that Berlin prosecutors defend but which defense lawyers say has led to a big increase in the number of women coming forward to make accusations against their alleged oppressors. There are not that many other ways for foreigners of modest means, without connections or a business sponsor, to get a visa.

The Berlin lawyer Rüdiger Jung notes that illegals charged with crimes tend to get better legal help than those merely fighting for their right to stay in Germany. Most of his immigration clients are from the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia, a reflection of the fact that eastern Europeans can blend in to German society more easily; many of the people who clean private homes, care for older people or work in construction, always on a cash basis, are Poles who enter Germany on tourist visas and often pass their customers on to a compatriot who will enter the country at the same time they leave. Then, three or six months later, the process will be reversed.

Jung points out that many illegals were students who did not want to go home, while others are unsuccessful asylum applicants who have nevertheless been able to avoid deportation.

Berlin's former commissioner for foreigner affairs, Barbara John, says it is a mistake that the immigration law passed by the German parliament and about to be reviewed by the Bundesrat, the upper parliamentary chamber representing the states, says nothing about illegals. She claims the only realistic approach would be to combine a more rigorous deportation policy in some cases with an acknowledgement that some illegals will never be deported and that it therefore makes more sense to actively integrate them - especially in the case of children.

Adelheid Franz, a physician who heads a special clinic in Berlin for illegals who have no health insurance, says the integration effort would not in many cases even require much in the way of resources: because they want to fit in, most illegals quickly learn German and work steadily, and seek nothing from the state.

Among the illegals' defenders, the motto is, "anyone who has been here for a long time should be allowed to stay." The federal government's commissioner for foreigners, Marie-Luise Beck, has demanded - in vain - a right to residency for those whose presence has been tolerated by officialdom for extended periods.

Support for that position comes from Klaus Röchert, the head of a commission on dealing with foreigners set up by the police union. Officials should make a virtue out of necessity and allow otherwise law-abiding illegals to stay, he adds, since illegal immigrants from poor countries "who are not totally stupid will not have to leave Germany anyway."

Rita Kantemir, who speaks on immigration issues for the Greens in the Berlin city-state parliament, says policies allowing foreigners to stay in Germany have become harsher under the current federal government, a coalition of her party and the Social Democrats, than at any point since she became involved in the issue in 1981. And yet the number of illegals is not decreasing.

Kantemir worked for years with 100 illegals from Sri Lanka, Angola and Vietnam, helping them get into schools or deal with bureaucratic and other problems, and they eventually won the right to residency. Today, 98 of them have jobs.

"We're not going to get rid of them," reasons Kantemir, "so why not let them work?"