Registrations and permits, please IN THE middle of Germany’s capital, refugees—among them pregnant women and babies—are sleeping on the pavement in freezing temperatures. Many come early in the morning, hoping to make it to the head of the line by the following day, says Christiane Beckmann of Moabit Hilft, an organisation of volunteers who provide them with food, clothes and advice. One woman holds up stamps showing she has come unsuccessfully seven days in a row. Their goal is to get into the large, ugly office building of LaGeSo, the German abbreviation for Berlin’s state office for health and social affairs. It is with this agency that refugees must register when they get to Berlin, and then re-register to obtain health care and services.
Germany is straining to cope with the 1m refugees who have arrived in the country this year, and for the most part it is managing. But in Germany’s federal system, the 16 regional states must integrate refugees once federal officials have fingerprinted them. Berlin, with an estimated 90,000 refugees this year in a population of 3.5m, is the least competent. Even before the refugee…
The Economist: Europe
