Berlin – ESI on the importance of migration partnerships at the Bavarian Representation

14 October 2025
Gerald speaking on the podium. Photo: Hans Seidel Stiftung
Gerald speaking on the podium. Photo: Hans Seidel Stiftung

ESI’s Gerald Knaus participated in a panel discussion titled „Migrationswende – Die Zukunft der deutschen Asylpolitik“. The event was organized by the Bavarian Representation in Berlin together with the Hanns-Seidel Foundation, the think-tank associated with the Bavaria’s largest political party, the CSU. Fellow panellists included CSU MdBs Daniela Ludwig and Thomas Silberhorn as well as migration expert Victoria Rietig.

On the panel, Gerald spoke about ESI’s work to create effective migration partnerships. He argued that such partnerships are critical to stopping the far-right’s rise, noting how central migration fears have become to the far-right’s identitarian narrative. The EU-Turkey statement is a good example, Gerald said, of how migration partnerships can drastically reduce illegal migration while also saving lives – a combination which undermines the far-right’s fear-mongering.

Gerald suggesting a similar deal be reached between the EU and the UK. In this partnership, the EU would agree to accept the return of migrants who illegal cross the English Channel; in return, the UK would agree to resettle a to-be-agreed-upon number of migrants directly from the EU. After this scheme proves to be successful, the program could then be expanded to further EU partner nations. This would undermine the smuggling model while still ensuring legal pathways and protection to those that need it, and demonstrate how the democratic state can manage migration humanely.