The main committee has approved the settlement regulation for 2024 presented by the Minister of the Interior with the votes of the ÖVP and the Greens. According to this regulation, apart from key workers in possession of a Red-White-Red Card and EU citizens, a maximum of 5,846 people may immigrate to Austria in 2024. This represents a decrease compared to the previous year, as 5,951 quota-based residence permits were still allowed to be issued in 2023.
The settlement regulation also sets maximum quotas for the individual federal states. In 2024, the following maximum numbers of people may be admitted: Burgenland 56, Carinthia 188, Lower Austria 348, Upper Austria 795, Salzburg 421, Styria 588, Tyrol 371, Vorarlberg 214 and Vienna 2,865.
The explanatory notes to the regulation indicate that the decline compared to the previous year is due to a lower overall need for quota-based residence permits. This particularly affects the need for family reunification of third-country nationals in Lower Austria and for third-country nationals without the intention of working, also known as "private individuals", in Burgenland.
The debate in the main committee revolved, among other things, around the timing of the implementation of the quotas for 2024. Gerald Loacker of the NEOS criticized the fact that the decisions will not be taken until June 2024. He also saw a mismatch between the residence permits for family reunification and the number of seasonal workers permitted in tourism and among harvest workers.
The FPÖ criticized the Interior Minister for another reason. According to the Settlement Act, the Interior Minister asks the states for their opinion before setting the quotas. In the case of Lower Austria, a response with the number zero was reported, as the responsible liberal state government does not want to accept any people. Despite this, the Interior Minister earmarked 348 people for Lower Austria, which the FPÖ sees as a violation of the law and a breach of the constitution.
The discussion in the committee continued, with a department head from the Interior Ministry emphasizing that there was no valid statement from Lower Austria. Only an email from the deputy head of the office was received on behalf of the Freedom Party's regional councilor. Such an individual statement cannot be considered an official statement.
The settlement regulation for 2024 specifies in detail how many residence permits may be issued for different purposes. The majority of the residence permits, namely a maximum of 5,045, are intended for the family reunification of third-country nationals. In addition, 420 residence permits may be issued to so-called "private individuals", 89 to third-country nationals with a foreign residence permit "permanent residence - EU" and 292 for changes of purpose from the residence permit "settlement permit - relative" to the title "Red-White-Red Card plus".
This information is based on the article from www.ots.at, which reports on the approval of the Establishment Ordinance 2024 by the Main Committee.
Source: die-nachrichten.at
