Exploitative, inhumane, pointless – calls for compulsory work for asylum seekers are met with rejection on various sides. Federal Labor Minister Heil could imagine it in individual cases.
In the debate about requiring asylum seekers in Germany to do community service, there is increasing criticism. SPD leader Saskia Esken told the Thüringer Allgemeine that she “didn’t think anything of it.” Similar measures have been tried unsuccessfully with the long-term unemployed in the past. “In view of the shortage of skilled workers, it is now much better to get refugees into employment subject to social security contributions more quickly and easily,” explained Esken.
The CEO of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Andrea Nahles, also rejected such advances. “It has been legally possible for refugees to work in accommodation for years, but municipalities have been rather reluctant to use it,” said Nahles.
Paragraph 5 of the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act states: “Able to work, non-employed beneficiaries who are no longer of compulsory school age are obliged to take up work opportunities provided.”
Heil: Compulsory work makes sense in individual cases
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil believes that a work requirement for asylum seekers makes sense in individual cases. “It is current law that municipalities can oblige asylum seekers who live in shared accommodation to do community service work. In individual cases it may also make sense to employ people in collective accommodation during the sometimes long waiting period,” the SPD politician told the Bild newspaper . However, sustainable labor market integration will not be successful.
Heil’s goal corresponds to that of his party colleague Esken. The aim is to get people who have found protection here permanently into work subject to social security contributions. “That’s why I’m relying on the job turbo, with which we can intensify the support provided by the job centers, determine the skills and qualifications of the refugees and thus make concrete job offers.”
Saale-Orla district wants to introduce compulsory work
The debate was initiated months ago by district council president Reinhard Sager. He had repeatedly called for asylum seekers to be obliged to work. “Anyone who is healthy and not handicapped has to work.” Financial support from the state should not be unconditional, Sager recently told the Bild newspaper.
In the Saale-Orla district in eastern Thuringia, asylum seekers are to be required to work four hours a day. The basis is the corresponding regulation in the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, explained a district spokesman. The refugees are supposed to do simple jobs for 80 cents per hour. If they refuse, they face a monetary cut of up to 180 euros per month.
Work for 80 cents an hour is exploitative
“It is racist and inhumane to suggest that refugees are unwilling to work,” said the human rights organization Pro Asyl. Their spokesman Tareq Alaows spoke out against those seeking protection “now being forced to work under exploitative conditions at 80 cents an hour,” while many of them are denied a regular work permit. Sager’s suggestions bordered on “forced labor.”
Anyone who employs refugees as cheap labor for 80 cents per hour is undermining collective agreements and minimum wages, criticized Left party leader Janine Wissler. “In this way, asylum seekers are pushed into the role of wage depressers.” This does not promote integration, but wage competition with people in the low-wage sector, she warned.
Support from the CDU
Support for Sager’s proposal comes from the CDU. Secretary General Carsten Linnemann welcomed a possible work requirement. Linnemann told the Bild newspaper: “Anything that strengthens the principle of supporting and demanding again is to be welcomed.”
Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt explained: “We have to send out the message: Anyone who experiences the solidarity of the community in Germany must also give something back,” he told the Germany editorial network. At the same time, this sends a signal “for the necessary limitation of immigration”.
Access to the labor market is severely limited
Access to the German labor market is severely restricted for newly arrived refugees. According to the current legal situation, asylum seekers are generally only allowed to work after three months – those who have to live in a reception center and do not have a minor child are only allowed to work after nine months. Tolerated people or refugees in a reception facility with a minor child are allowed to work after six months.
Asylum seekers from so-called safe countries of origin who submitted their asylum application after August 2015 generally have no access to the labor market.
Pauline Pieper, RBB, tagesschau, February 29, 2024 5:35 a.m