Standing outside Germany’s parliament in June, Ahmad Shikh Ali fought back tears as he held up a blurry photo of his three-year-old son. Since fleeing Aleppo more than two years ago, Shikh Ali had done all he could to secure his son a safe future: moving to Hanover, getting full-time employment and wading through endless paperwork so that his wife and son could join him.

He was close to reuniting with his family, with just two cases in front of his in the queue. That was, until Germany’s lower house of parliament passed a bill in June to suspend family reunifications for migrants like him for at least two years.

“Since I learned of this decision I can’t sleep, I can’t get on with my life,” Shikh Ali told reporters as he broke into tears. “My son was crawling when I left him; he is walking now.”

It is a hint of how people’s lives have been reshaped in recent months as a handful of governments in the EU move to restrict family reunification. While campaigners have contextualised the measures as part of a wider push by politicians to be seen as tough on migration, they say the focus on family reunification is misguided.