Last October, the federal government launched a program called “Job Turbo.” The goal is to integrate refugees into the job market more quickly, even if they don’t speak much German yet. Does it work?
A work meeting with obstacles: Master mechanic Martin Kauschke from Weilerbach near Kaiserslautern and his colleague Vasyl Romanenko are standing in front of the open hood of a light blue small car. Kauschke speaks into a cell phone in German about what needs to be repaired on the vehicle. A few seconds later, thanks to a translation program, Romanenko can read what he should do on the cell phone display. If the Ukrainian has questions about the work order, the whole thing goes the other way around.
Difficult Employee search
A time-consuming process. Nothing can be done here on a quick call. Romanenko doesn’t speak enough German for that. But Kauschke still doesn’t want to do without his employee. The 52-year-old says he has been looking for a car mechanic for years without success. A frustrating experience for the man from the Palatinate. Kauschke recently worked six days a week and still had to turn away customers more and more often.
And then last December, Romanenko suddenly appeared in the workshop door and asked for work. The 45-year-old had a Ukrainian friend with him who acted as interpreter. At first, Kauschke was rather skeptical; he knew straight away that this would not be a normal working relationship. On the other hand, he was impressed by Romanenko’s courage and commitment. After a week of trial work, it was clear: the Ukrainian had the job.
Attitude is right
The 45-year-old is a widower; his wife was killed by a grenade three days after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Romanenko first sent his two underage sons alone to friends in Germany, and for the past year and a half he has been living with them in Weilerbach.
Romanenko worked as a professional soldier in his home country for 25 years, and was often involved in repairing and maintaining trucks. However, he is not a trained car mechanic. His boss doesn’t care, Kauschke says that his attitude and commitment are the right ones, and that is more important.
Romanenko is currently working 50 percent in the car repair shop in agreement with the responsible job center. At the same time, he is supposed to attend a German course. Until he can speak the language better, the Ukrainian will receive minimum wage, and the employment agency covered 30 percent of the costs in the first four months.
Nationwide Get-to-know-you events
The head of the employment agency in Kaiserslautern-Pirmasens, Peter Weißler, says he is happy when companies like the Kauschke car repair shop give refugees a chance despite all the communication problems. To ensure that there are even more, the employment agencies are organizing 2,500 events nationwide by late summer as part of the “Job Turbo” program. The goal: employers and immigrants should get to know each other personally at job fairs and job cafés, among other things.
At the same time, companies are being informed about financial grants and support offers. This has also attracted interest from the Ludwigshafen-based chemical giant BASF, who say they are currently examining the possibility of implementing the “Job Turbo” program.
The translation of Martin Kauschke’s instructions can be read on a smartphone.
“Encouraging progress”
The Federal Employment Agency is satisfied with the success of the “Job Turbo” so far. There has been encouraging progress on the road to integration into work. For example, in April 2024, almost 6,800 Ukrainians were able to leave unemployment behind, compared to just under 2,900 in April 2023. This is all the more impressive given that the situation on the labor market has become more difficult since then.
If we take Ukraine and the most important countries of origin of asylum seekers together, then last April more than 21,000 refugees managed to move from unemployment into work for the first time.
Size Challenge: It has to fit
Ralf Sänger from the Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Integration Network says that the big challenge with “Job Turbo” is to get the right match, i.e. to make sure that the job and the employee are a good fit. Ukrainian refugees, for example, are mostly academics. But the jobs on offer for them at the moment are mainly in warehousing, catering and sales. He demands that if refugees are only used for helper jobs at first, then only half a day, otherwise a language course cannot be carried out successfully in the foreseeable future. The aim must be to qualify refugees while they are working.
In addition, refugees must be paid a minimum wage. Wiebke Judith, legal policy spokeswoman for the human rights organization “Pro Asyl”l, is not a fan of the “Job Turbo”. She says the aim of the program is primarily to improve labor market statistics – and not to integrate refugees into the labor market in the long term. As a result, they would work far below the qualifications they had in their home country – for example as nursing assistants instead of as doctors. Wiebke Judith therefore demands: “We don’t need a ‘Job Turbo’, but a recognition turbo for qualifications acquired abroad.”
Frustration due to lack of German courses
Such discussions do not take place in the car repair shop in Weilerbach, Palatinate. Vasyl Romanenko is happy that after many unsuccessful attempts he has finally found work. And a place where he and his skills are valued.
His employer, Martin Kauschke, is happy that someone is finally helping him in the workshop. There is only one thing that annoys him: Romanenko was actually supposed to be taking a German course in parallel to his work starting in February. But he didn’t get a place until April. Because this course wasn’t the right one for Romanenko, he now has to wait until August for the next one.
Kauschke says that this means valuable time is lost. Until further notice, he will have to resort to the mobile phone translation program for every little agreement.