As Germany elects its next Bundestag, migration remains one of the most important issues to voters. But politicians are not debating how to attract the 288,000 migrants the country needs every year to maintain its workforce. Rather, parties struggle over who can promise the most deportations and the tightest border controls.
Anti-immigrant sentiment has profoundly reshaped Germany’s political landscape. It is connected to the surge of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as well as the rightward shift of the Christian Democrats and Liberals, and the social democrat SPD under current chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Even the Greens and the Left party were internally conflicted on the matter, ultimately leading the anti-immigration BSW to split off from the Left.
