Precarity in German Policy: The Vulnerabilities of Refugees and Asylees from Discrimination to Human Trafficking

To create a safer, more inclusive environment for refugees and asylees, it is incumbent upon Germany’s federal government and community-based organizations to build effective, well-informed policy and strengthen Germany’s community response to address the vulnerabilities refugees and asylees face daily. The current policies in place do not adequately address the underlying vulnerabilities that refugees and asylees face within Germany, such as access to formal job markets, safe housing, social acceptance, security, etc. This results in a heightened precarity of refugees and asylees, leaving them vulnerable to discrimination, violence, and human trafficking. Policy that is aimed at the underlying causes of precarity is crucial. Providing information to refugees and asylees about their rights within Germany will increase their ability to self-advocate. Federal actors can expand formal trainings for government officials to include understanding human trafficking in the context of a refugee’s and asylee’s situation, thus, encouraging an inclusive and accurate approach to combat human trafficking from a top down perspective. These federal and state actors can also create more space for a community response to human trafficking of refugees and asylees, by relaxing its control of nonprofits, community-based organizations, and community service organizations. By expanding the influence of community-based organizations through diversifying partnerships and funders, community-based organizations can work outside of the federal sphere, providing a bottom up approach to human trafficking. Implementing and building upon these policy recommendations allows Germany to begin to evaluate its border policies’ role in creating precarity for refugees and asylees and collectively work towards a humanitarian approach to border control.