ShiftingLocation: A Look into the Process of Relocating - Wegner advocates for equitable sharing of refugees.
Kai Wegner, Berlin's Mayor, scolds the imbalance of refugee distribution across the city. "Look at the districts where many refugees have already settled," he said on Tuesday. "It's Lichtenberg, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Pankow - these are the districts on the city's periphery." Inner city districts like Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg have fewer spaces for refugees.
Wegner insisted that the responsibility needs to be evenly distributed among all twelve districts. "The pressure won't ease up unless we share the burden," he noted after touring the Senate at Rathaus Lichtenberg. "It's getting harder by the day to find suitable housing for everyone, so we're considering mass accommodations. Right now, Lichtenberg lacks space. Schools are crowded, and more people with children are arriving." These issues are immense.
The CDU politician believes Germany must be honest with itself. At the June 20 Minister President Conference, he urged for a revisit of this topic: "We need to speed up asylum processes more uniformly, make it clear who can receive asylum, and who can't." The strain isn't exclusive to Berlin. "Angela Merkel can't evade this issue anymore."
