Set against the mountainous border region along the German border, Salzburg is one of Austria's most picturesque cities. Although the landscape is a feast for the eyes during the day, the baroque city’s true character comes out as the sun sets on the Salzburg Slate Alps.

But this serene charm means little to some of the city’s newer residents. Sajid Khan is one of them. "I like Salzburg. It reminds me of my hometown Jalalabad which is also surrounded by mountains," he told InfoMigrants. "But I fear that what I call home will once again be taken away from me."

The 43-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan migrated to Austria in 2014. Since then, he has been entangled in Austria's strict and complex asylum process. All these years later, Khan is still not allowed to work in Austria. But that is not his only worry. "Austrians have a problem with everything that is not Austrian," he explained to InfoMigrants. Taunts and abuse are a part of everyday life for anyone who visibly appears non-Austrian, the Afghan national claims.

Changing views on integration

Khan's assertions can be understood, considering that 58 percent of the people in Austria voted for the country's two main anti-immigration parties in elections held last year. According to the results of a survey published in Statistics Austria's yearly report on migration and integration (Statistisches Jahrbuch für Migration & Integration), 45 percent of those partaking in the poll without a migration background responded positively while 55 percent were skeptical when asked whether they thought integration was working in Austria.

From 2010 to 2014, the percentage of Austrians who thought integration was actually working initially grew from 30.8 percent in 2010 to 48.6 percent in 2014. But things changed when over a million people arrived in Europe in 2015, and the German-Austrian border became the center of attraction of the so-called refugee crisis. 

As a consequence, that momentum broke in 2015 and since then, positive opinion on integration has fluctuated. It stood at 40.5 percent in 2015, rose to 48.1 percent in 2016 before dropping to a low of 36.5 percent in 2017.

Amnesty International criticizes Austria's asylum policies

Heinz Patzelt, the General Secretary of Amnesty International in Austria, holds the country's government responsible for such unsteady views. He told InfoMigrants, "the Vienna government is working really hard to not integrate even those who cannot leave the country because they have successfully received asylum or cannot be deported under other forms of protection."

According to Patzelt, genuine efforts are being made to 'disintegrate' the ones who have, using their own initiative, adapted to Austrian culture. The strongest indication of this is the fact that all language lessons for asylum seekers have been canceled. Speaking with InfoMigrants in the Austrian capital city of Vienna, Heinz Patzelt pointed out that this change can be attributed to the current coalition government led by the conservatives and a right-wing party.

"All the governments in the last 20 years in Austria have made it clear that they were not particularly thrilled to have migrants and asylum seekers here, but if they were here already, efforts were made to make them active members of society. The big change now is that the conditions are made as inconvenient, as un-friendly and as hostile as they can be, in the hope that migrants and asylum seekers will disappear. That is the policy being pursued in Austria right now," Patzelt said.

Caritas Austria: Strict asylum policies working

Tatjana Krafft, the manager of Caritas' accommodation for asylum seekers charity in Salzburg, believes this policy is bearing good results.

"One can notice that the strict policies are having an impact simply by looking at the sheer drop in the number of people coming to us," she told InfoMigrants. Krafft's charity works with city authorities to provide asylum seekers accommodation while their applications are being processed.

She told InfoMigrants, "we have the capacity to house 49 people, but currently we have a number of free places available with no one to occupy them."

Low applicant numbers in Austria

According to the statistical office of the EU (Eurostat), the number of people seeking asylum from non-European Union countries stood at 137,000 during the second quarter of 2018. The number of first-time asylum applicants in the EU decreased by 12 percent in the second quarter of 2018 – in comparison with the same quarter of 2017 but increased by 4 percent compared to the first quarter of 2018.

In total, citizens of 145 countries sought asylum in the EU in the second quarter of the current year. Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi were the top three nationalities of asylum seekers in the EU, with 18,300, 9,200 and 8,400 applications lodged respectively.

Out of the 137,000 first time applications, just 5,540 were filed in Austria between April and June 2018. The number of asylum applications submitted in Austria in 2016 was 42,285, and in 2015 some 88,340 applications were filed.

Austria leading efforts to curb unregulated migration

At the peak of the European refugee crisis in 2015, 88,340 people – or the equivalent of about one percent of Austria's population – applied for asylum in the country. The numbers have drastically dropped since then; however, migration remains a key issue for the coalition of conservatives and the far right.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been at the forefront of introducing several decrees in Austria that are intended to curb migrant numbers. As Austria currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, Kurz has made curbing unregulated migration a priority in Brussels as well.

The Austrian government announced its withdrawal from the UN global migration pact to promote safe and orderly migration at the end of October 2018. Known as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the UN agreement was finalized in July, and is due to be approved at a December 11-12 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

The US and Hungary have already announced that they won't sign the agreement either.

Growing anxiety among asylum seekers and migrants

Afghan asylum seeker Sajid Khan has also witnessed the changes that took place since the current government took over at the end of 2017. He says the overall situation has deteriorated for all non-Austrians: "Police raids, patrolling and law enforcement have increased quite dramatically," Khan said, adding that the attitude of police officers has become more offensive and disrespectful towards asylum seekers.

Khan says that in addition to not being able to work and no longer being allowed to learn the language, the fact that locals avoid interacting with asylum seekers also contributes to growing anxiety and frustration amongst young refugees and migrants, who have left everything in their lives behind to seek a better future.

"Some cannot take it and revert to petty crime such as selling or even consuming drugs," Khan highlighted, pointing at a group of men who loitering around Salzburg's central train station.

#wirsindmehr - We are more!

It is important, however, to note that the sentiment evident in most of the Austrian government's policies is not reflective of the Austrian population as a whole. InfoMigrants spoke to people in Vienna to gauge the mood. One of the respondents replied, "I have felt this atmosphere for some time now. The situation and the rhetoric has gotten rougher, more charged and more hostile. But there are more of us – I mean people who think this is not okay."

Another young student from Austria described his feelings using the following words: "There are a lot of people who are going over the top and exaggerating how dangerous the situation is, which also has an impact on security. But not everyone is dangerous. It's being blown out of proportion."

Heinz Patzelt of Amnesty remains optimistic that the situation will change: "It is our duty to protect asylum seekers. The corporate sector has been pointing out that we need workers and they won't come from a shrinking Austrian society."

Sooner or later, Patzelt added, there will be politicians who understand that.