France Overtakes Germany as Top Asylum Seeker Destination in European Union

France has reportedly surpassed Germany for the first time in years as the top destination in the European Union for alleged asylum seekers, a survey from the governing Commission has found.

According to confidential documents leaked to Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, France has received 40,871 asylum applications in the first three months of this year. This was the most of any EU nation, followed by Spain at 39,318 applications, and typically first-place Germany following in third place at 37,387.

This represented a 41 per cent decline for Germany compared to the same time period last year. Meanwhile, France is on pace to see a three per cent increase over 2024 if the first quarter trend continues throughout the rest of the year.

Rather than any government policy, the decline in Germany has primarily been attributed to the end of the civil war in Syria, which long represented one of the top countries of origin for asylum seekers in Germany.

This has corresponded with an overall decline in asylum seekers entering the EU+, which includes Norway and Switzerland, for statistical purposes. So far this year, 210,641 asylum seekers have applied for protection in the region, a 19 per cent decline over last year.

In stark contrast to their liberal counterparts and demonstrating the ability for governments to limit mass migration, Hungary and Slovakia were listed at the bottom of the list of countries in terms of asylum applications received, with Budapest only receiving 22 applications and Bratislava receiving 37 since the start of the year.

Conversely, France, particularly under President Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal government, has taken a far more open-borders approach. Indeed, the number of first-time applications from asylum seekers jumped by 89 per cent from when Macron came into office to 2023. The difference is even more dramatic when compared to earlier years, with 2023 seeing a 245 per cent increase over 2009.

Between 2017 and 2023, the Macron government registered 825,000 asylum applications in the country, the equivalent of allowing a population the size of Marseille, entirely comprised of asylum seekers, into France during the six years.

The Observatory of Immigration and Demography (OID) has attributed the massive influx to the lax criteria for applying for asylum in France. The think tank noted that under the current rules, around 580 million people worldwide would be eligible to seek asylum in the country, or approximately 8.5 times the present population of France.

The OID has pointed to the expansion in recent years of what Paris views as a refugee, which has grown to include all those allegedly suffering violence in their home country as a result of their gender or sex, rather than the traditional definition of fleeing from war and conflict. There are also no limits placed on the number of asylees per country, or even a limit on the number the government is willing to take in per year.

Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti, director of the OID, has called on the government to seek an opt-out clause from EU immigration rules, similar to those afforded to countries like Denmark and Ireland. Pouvreau-Monti has also suggested that the state refuse any second application from a migrant and make the asylum system less attractive overall to reduce the waves of migrants seeking asylum in the country.

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