Family reunification for migrants under subsidiary protection in Germany: An instrument for strategic political positioning

The debate over migration policy played a major role in the recent collapse in German coalition talks, a first indication of how the AfD changed the country’s political discourse.

[...] In the context of the current political climate in Germany, it is thus much more likely that – the political parties are taking a hard stance on family reunification as a highly visible manoeuvre to strategically position themselves against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the new German Bundestag. The AfD is a far-right party that won 12.6% of the vote during the recent German federal elections by running a campaign mostly on an anti-immigration platform and inflammatory rhetoric. The party succeeded in persuading a significant number of voters to defect from the established parties, including more than a million from Merkel’s CDU. [...]

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