"It's common knowledge that many North African families are sending their sons to Europe with the sole purpose of allowing them to remit money home. But that's not what our social benefits are for," the German socialist politician said.

Social benefits for asylum seekers are a taboo topic for many politicians, especially among the Socialists (SPD) and the Greens, but now the SPD’s Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony, has broken this taboo, reports the German daily Bild.

In the ZDF television program, Weil said,

„It is well known that many North African families send their sons to Europe in order to send money home. But this is not the purpose of our social benefits.”

According to Bild, Weil’s words send a strong message to the Berlin government to do more to stop illegal migration and draw attention to abuses of the social benefits system in an unusually harsh tone.

V4NA had already reported that

being an unemployed migrant in Germany can be so lucrative that, in many cases, undocumented migrants receive benefits equivalent to the income of an average German clocking up 40-hour workweeks.

It’s no wonder that as many people as possible try to seize such an opportunity and hundreds of migrants – mostly men of military age, about whom nothing is known – arrive from the Middle East and Africa every day.

When asked by Bild, Weil could not give specific figures on how many asylum seekers send money home. However, an analysis by the Bundesbank shows that

in 2022, foreign nationals have transferred around seven billion euros from Germany to their countries of origin.

Most of the money, 848 million euros, flowed into Turkey. This was followed by Syria (€407 million), Afghanistan (€162 million) and Iraq (€120 million). A total of 402 million euros flowed into Africa, about a third of which went to North Africa (including Morocco).

CDU politician Carsten Linnemann agrees with Weil’s statement. Speaking to Bild, he said, „The fact that the citizenship benefit is enough money to send back to their home countries repeatedly shows that this is a false incentive. This is why it’s time we switched to benefits in kind.”

In the future, it will become much more difficult for asylum seekers to remit money home, as payment cards are expected to be introduced in early 2024. Asylum seekers will then no longer receive money. Instead, they will be able to make purchases with the card.

CDU politician Christoph de Vries said in this regard that the social benefits of asylum seekers are intended to ensure their livelihood in Germany, not to provide for their families back home.