In March a year ago I came to Bavaria with my daughter, my mother and my aunt. I already knew then that we would stay for a long time. Many other refugees were sure that they would soon be able to return home. They now know that they were wrong and that integration is necessary.
A lot of my friends have done it well. Of course, it was easiest for those who could speak German. All the German teachers I know found work straight away. They teach either at the schools in the bridging classes for the Ukrainian children, or in the integration courses.
My friend and former boss Lera has a scholarship at daily mirror get in Berlin. She worked as an editor at the largest television channel in Ukraine, speaks good English and quite good German. Now she writes every week about the war and the life of Ukrainians in Germany.
A 20-year-old girl, Olexandra, who studied hotel management in Kyiv, found a job in the hotel after a few weeks. At that time she already spoke English very well and a little German. Now she speaks both languages fluently. At the hotel, she works the morning shift so that she can study in the afternoon.
If you speak English, there are some chances of finding work and being independent or almost independent of the job center. Most of the English teachers I know found a job at the school without any problems. But what about all my other compatriots who could neither speak English nor German when they arrived here?
I know many refugees who have since learned German and have already passed the B1 exam. This means that you already understand German quite well and can more or less speak and write it. My friend Anastasiia, who also lives in Bavaria with her two children, can now even listen to seminars on energy efficiency in German without any problems. She studied energy management. Now she is looking for an internship in this field. I have a feeling she’ll find something soon.
But you can also find a job with no knowledge of German and almost no knowledge of English. A relative of mine, Inna, found a job as a warehouse clerk at a pharmacy, even though she didn’t speak any German yet. In Ukraine she managed a pharmacy and was keen to work in the pharmacy again. I helped her to write a CV and she sent the applications to different pharmacies. She quickly got a job offer and has now been working in a pharmacy in Munich for about four months. She actively learns German in her free time and understands her colleagues quite well. For the future she plans to have her certificates recognized and to work as a pharmacist.
Of course, there are many refugees (mostly women) from Ukraine for whom the German language is really difficult, or who cannot work because they have small children and often do not have a place in the day care center. But almost everyone I know is trying very hard to find their interim place in German society, even if they want to go home as soon as possible. But until then, they want to be independent here and make money. That’s our character, that’s in our blood. Despite war.
Emiliia Dieniezhna, 34, fled from Kyiv to Pullach near Munich with her then four-year-old daughter Ewa. From there she works on a voluntary basis for the non-governmental organization NAKO, whose aim is to fight corruption in Ukraine. She also teaches German to Ukrainian refugee children. Once a week she writes a column for the SZ about her view from Munich on the events in her home country.