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From summer onwards, a payment card will replace cash for asylum seekers in Germany. The debate has also started in Switzerland.
A prepaid card instead of cash for refugees: Germany is breaking new ground in asylum policy. Instead of paying out state support in cash to refugees who are in the asylum application process, the money is transferred to a debit card.
The SVP is also toying with this idea. The party has submitted corresponding proposals in the cantons of Basel-Stadt and St. Gallen. “We have expenses in the asylum sector that are not right. Money is sent home, some of it goes to smuggling gangs, some of it is spent on things that are not needed,” says Walter Gartmann, who helped initiate the motion in St. Gallen. “With a card, the asylum seeker can easily go shopping in his area.”
The SVP receives support from the FDP, which, according to FDP National Councilor Christian Wasserfallen, member of the State Political Commission, finds the debit card system “definitely worth examining”.
Map met with criticism from leftists
The left, however, is not very enthusiastic. She considers the payment card to be discriminatory and not very solution-oriented. The Zurich SP National Councilor Celine Widmer says: “Such a payment card is a bureaucratic monster, as the cantons have to agree and coordinate here and it is another attempt by the SVP to harass asylum seekers.”
Balthasar Glättli, President of the Green Party and member of the National Council’s State Political Commission, adds: “I think it would be important that in the asylum sector we don’t look at how we can better torture people, but rather how we can solve problems better.” There is no problem with refugees being able to pay back massive amounts of money because they are far below the rates of Swiss people and therefore receive little money.
The federal government has already examined the German model
This impression is also confirmed by Andreas Lustenberger from Caritas Switzerland, who, as a member of the management team, regularly deals with the reality of life for refugees. “In principle, people in the asylum area already receive very deep support. With asylum social assistance, it is in itself extremely difficult to survive in Switzerland.” The measure is a non-starter.
The introduction of such a system would involve considerable effort, but would not have any significant advantages.
This is similar at the federal level. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) examined the introduction of such payment cards and came to the conclusion that there was no need at the federal level, as the SEM wrote in response to inquiries from SRF: “The introduction of such a system would involve considerable effort but do not have any significant advantages.”
As long as asylum seekers remain in the federal asylum centers, social assistance is generally provided in the form of benefits in kind. They also receive pocket money of three francs per day. “The cash that is available to asylum seekers when they are initially accommodated by the federal government is unlikely to be sufficient for misuse or for a transfer to the country of origin,” it continues.
It remains to be seen whether the idea is definitely off the table. In any case, the SVP has already announced that it also wants to submit a proposal to the national parliament.