Germany's upper house narrowly approves landmark immigration law, conservatives protest

Friday, March 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BERLIN (AP) _ A landmark immigration bill designed to boost the ranks of skilled workers in Germany without altering the culture or raising the already high jobless rate scraped through parliament on Friday by a margin of one vote.

Conservatives who fiercely opposed the legislation immediately declared the 35-34 vote in the upper house invalid and urged President Johannes Rau not to sign the bill into law _ usually a formality once legislation has been approved.

The bill would be Germany's first comprehensive immigration law and a major victory for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is in a close race for re-election.

Germany has long debated how to balance its need to modernize against fears in some quarters about the country becoming an increasingly multicultural society. Many Germans also are concerned about foreigners filling jobs at a time when unemployment is running above 10 percent.

The government said its bill would allow Germany to admit workers needed by industry in areas such as the high-tech sector while also tightening asylum laws and requiring foreigners to assimilate.

The legislation foresees integration courses for long-term foreign residents that would address the German language, culture and society _ with attendance required in cases where their knowledge of the language is insufficient.

Conservatives maintained the government plan would expose the country to a flood of immigrants, worsening unemployment, a central issue of the election campaign. Currently, the country's 7.3 million legal foreign residents account for about 9 percent of the population.

``We can't afford to expand immigration when, in terms of integration, we can't cope with the existing immigration,'' argued Schroeder's challenger in national elections scheduled for September, Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber.

``We will present a new bill immediately after the election that respects the social balance in our society,'' Stoiber told reporters after the vote. ``It's a bad bill. It's a bill that divides more than it unites.''

Last year, a government-appointed commission found that Germany needs tens of thousands of new migrants each year to supplement its aging, shrinking population.

Conservatives were keen to present a united front. Schroeder's center-left administration lacks a majority in the upper house, which represents Germany's 16 states.

The result hinged on the eastern state of Brandenburg, which is governed by a coalition of Schroeder's Social Democrats and the conservative Christian Democrats.

Ministers in the state had failed to agree on a common position. Brandenburg's Social Democrat governor, Manfred Stolpe, overruled his conservative interior minister, Joerg Schoenbohm, to vote in favor on the state's behalf.

Other conservatives claimed the procedure made the vote invalid. Leaders of the opposition-led states walked out in protest after upper house president Klaus Wowereit, a Social Democrat, turned down their request to reconsider the result. They urged Rau not to sign the bill.