1. People seeking protection in Heidelberg, like others, have a bank account. With the giro card, they can access their money. If they are not yet employed, they initially receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. These are intended to be transferred onto prepaid cards in the future, which will limit both cash withdrawals and transfers/direct debits. Objective: No transfers to their own families and smugglers, deterrence, reduction of "pull factors." This rationale for the prepaid card violates our fundamental rights: the prohibition of discrimination, the protection of the family, personal rights.
2. The prepaid card is an infringement of personal rights. Refugees are thus harassed. Shopping at their preferred stores may not take place because the installation of card readers in small shops may be too expensive. 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 subject to the office's discretion. The assignment of the prepaid card itself is subject to discretion. This will not only additionally burden the administration but also monstrously increase the dependence of those affected on the office, as transparency for them is lost.
3. The objective of introducing the prepaid card is not achieved anyway. The weekly report 49/2024 of the DIW shows that international money transfers originate only to a minimal extent from refugees, and certainly least of all from those receiving benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, as these benefits (a maximum of 441€) are below the citizen's income and certainly do not meet the requirements set by the 2012 ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, which stipulated that the subsistence minimum must not be politically relativized through migration policies. Moreover, reasons for fleeing undoubtedly outweigh questions of benefits.
4. The introduction of a restrictive prepaid card is part of a large-scale attack on the rights of people seeking protection. The reduction of social rights for refugees coincides with the expansion of Fortress Europe and efforts to gradually rid oneself of responsibilities for refugee protection (Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 14) and obligations, not least in the form of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The extreme right has succeeded in developing a determining discourse that views people seeking protection only as a threat. Unfortunately, this racist narrative is increasingly being adopted by democratic parties, furthering processes of de-solidarization and shifting societal discourse to the right. The prepaid card is nothing but populist symbolic politics that cater to racism and further marginalize, discriminate against, and control those seeking protection. Integration looks different!
5. The introduction of the prepaid card is not inevitable. NRW has introduced an opt-out regulation that allows municipalities not to implement the prepaid card. Several major cities have already taken advantage of this. However, resistance is also growing in Lower Saxony: although there is no opt-out regulation there, the city of Hanover has declared that it will not introduce the prepaid card and is thus confidently engaging in open resistance. The city council has declared by a majority and with the factions of CDU, SPD, and Greens that it will not introduce the card because it is discriminatory.

We call on the factions of the Heidelberg City Council and the administration to also reject the discriminatory and pointless prepaid card in Heidelberg.

Initial 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 (Catholic refugee chaplain)
• Ulrich Wohland
• Bernd Zieger
• Antifascist Initiative Heidelberg
• Asylum Workers Group Heidelberg e.V.
• Block prepaid card! Heidelberg and Rhein-Neckar
• Shaping Opportunities Heidelberg e.V.
• DIE ZEP
• FLINTA* KunstZimmer
• Women help Women e.V. Heidelberg
• International Women's and Family Center Heidelberg e.V.
• linksjugend ['solid] Heidelberg
• Students against the Right Heidelberg
• Seebrücke Heidelberg
• Socialist Youth - The Falcons District Heidelberg