Why do we reject the payment card?

The payment card represents an encroachment on the autonomy of refugees and leads to restricted participation in everyday life. In the Rhein-Neckar district, there will be a cash limit of 50 € per month. It is expected that there will be a similar restriction in Heidelberg. Transfers, online purchases, and contracts are not possible or only possible with great effort. Many areas of life require cash: e.g. small shops, weekly markets, flea markets, or cultural events. All this is restricted by the payment card.

Even if the payment card resembles a debit card, its uses are much more limited as the card only works in specific stores. And if those affected want to put money aside despite the meager benefits to financially support their family abroad, this is made very difficult for them. The card is problematic in terms of data protection and offers the authorities comprehensive insights and control options.

What are we doing about it?

We do not want to accept this discriminatory and exclusive card in Heidelberg and want to show solidarity with those affected. For this purpose, we have organized a voucher exchange for Heidelberg and the surrounding area, following the example of many other initiatives nationwide.

The principle:

1. People with a payment card buy a shopping voucher in the supermarket
2. At the voucher exchange, they receive the voucher value in cash
3. People without a payment card receive the vouchers in exchange for cash

The exchange actions are not illegal, but a response to a presumably unconstitutional policy, as the basic rights of those affected are violated, and the cash limit of 50 € endangers the minimum subsistence level. (Read more at: Partial victory in summary proceedings against the restrictive payment card: PRO ASYL and GFF support complaining family | PRO ASYL)

How can you support?

Feel free to contact us and/or come to our meetings if you...

• ... want to contribute your own perspectives
• ... want to support the organization of the exchange markets
• ... want to take shifts in the exchange market
• ... can provide us with premises
• ... are organized in rooms and would be willing to issue shopping vouchers in your rooms
• ... can collectively take our shopping vouchers, e.g. for your shared flat, house project, association...
• ... want to participate in a political campaign against these racist attacks
• ... want to support legal action against the payment card or even just get to know us or have questions.

We are also reliant on donations. For the exchange actions, we need a financial buffer. Additionally, we need some money, for example, for materials such as flyers or posters, small purchases like lockable cash boxes or barcode scanners, or room rentals for information events. Donation receipts can be issued.

If the financial buffer is no longer needed, it would be donated to the following organizations:

• Sea-Watch e.V.
• ALARMPHONE
• Asylarbeitskreis Heidelberg e.V.
• Café Talk

This means your donation will do good in any case.

For a world of solidarity!

What do nationwide structures look like?

There are already initiatives in many cities against the payment card and exchange initiatives like ours. We are networked nationwide in the network "Equal Social Rights for All!" (Website, Instagram)

Further information

• Scientific assessment of the payment card
  Flüchtlingsrat Baden-Württemberg
• Fewer and fewer rights for refugees
  Flüchtlingsrat Baden-Württemberg
• What you need to know about the new payment card for refugees
  Landtag Baden-Württemberg

1. People seeking protection have an account in Heidelberg like everyone else. With the giro card, they can access their money. If they are not yet working, they initially receive benefits under the AsylbLG. These are to be transferred to payment cards in the future, which restrict both cash expenditures and transfers/direct debits. The aim: No transfers to family and smugglers, deterrence, reduction of "pull factors". This rationale for the payment card violates our fundamental rights: the prohibition of discrimination, family protection, personal rights.
2. The payment card is an encroachment on personal rights. Refugees are harassed with it. Shopping in their preferred stores may not take place because setting up the debit card reader is too expensive for small shops. Transfers and direct debits require approval from the social welfare office. If there are special needs, an application must be submitted. 50 € cash is an amount at the office's discretion. The assignment of the payment card itself is at the discretion. This will not only add to the administrative burden but also makes the dependence of those affected on the office monstrous, especially as transparency is lost for them.
3. The goal of introducing the payment card will not be achieved anyway. DIW's weekly report 49/2024 shows that international transfers are very minimally made by refugees, and certainly least by those receiving benefits under the AsylbLG, as these benefits (a maximum of 441€) are below citizen's basic income and certainly do not meet the requirements set by the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling of 2012, which stated that the minimum subsistence level should not be politically relativized. Moreover, reasons for fleeing outweigh the issue of benefits.
4. The introduction of a restrictive payment card is part of a large-scale attack on the rights of people seeking protection. The dismantling of the social rights of refugees is accompanied by the expansion of Fortress Europe and efforts to gradually dispose of responsibility for refugee protection (Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 14) and commitments, not least in the form of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The extreme right has successfully developed a defining discourse that views people seeking protection solely as a threat. Unfortunately, democratic parties have increasingly adopted this racist narrative in recent years, promoting processes of desolidarization and shifting the societal discourse to the right. The payment card is nothing but populist symbolic politics that serves racism and further marginalizes, discriminates against, and controls those seeking protection. Integration looks different!
5. The introduction of the payment card is not without alternatives. NRW has introduced an opt-out regulation allowing municipalities not to implement the payment card. Several major cities have already made use of this. But in Lower Saxony, resistance is stirring: although there is no opt-out regulation there, the city of Hannover has declared not to introduce the payment card and is openly resisting. The city council has declared by a majority and with the factions from the CDU, SPD, and Greens not to introduce the card because it is discriminatory.

We urge the factions of the Heidelberg city council and the administration to reject the discriminatory and pointless payment card in Heidelberg as well.

First signatories

• Bettina Bauer-Teiwes
• Angelika Binding
• Lothar Binding
• Dr. Gabriele Buschbeck
• Dr. Konrad Buschbeck
• Waseem Butt
• Ulrike Duchrow
• Prof. Dr. Ulrich Duchrow
• Heidi Flassak
• Prof. Dr. Ute Gerhard
• Dr. Jörg Götz-Hege
• Gudrun Sidrassi-Harth
• Prof. Dr. Dietrich Harth
• Dr. Susanne Himmelheber
• Zara Dilan Kiziltas
• Margret Krannich
• Maria Kühn-Ludewig
• Prof. Dr. Wilfried Kühn
• Mia Lindemann
• Sahra Mirow
• Willi Morlock
• Jean-Michel Räber
• Hilde Stolz
• Prof. Dr. Ute Straub
• Nera Vukovic-Bringezu
• Jochen Winter (kath. Flüchtlingsseelsorger)
• Ulrich Wohland
• Bernd Zieger
• Antifaschistische Initiative Heidelberg
• Asylarbeitskreis Heidelberg e.V.
• Bezahlkarte stoppen! Heidelberg und Rhein-Neckar
• Chancen gestalten Heidelberg e.V.
• DIE ZEP
• FLINTA* KunstZimmer
• Frauen helfen Frauen e.V. Heidelberg
• Internationales Frauen- und Familienzentrum Heidelberg e.V.
• linksjugend ['solid] Heidelberg
• Schülis gegen Rechts Heidelberg
• Seebrücke Heidelberg
• Sozialistische Jugend – Die Falken Unterbezirk Heidelberg