The Federal Government wants asylum seekers to be able to work in Germany earlier and more easily in the future. How can this work and does it solve the skills shortage?
Ibrahima Bah had a better future in mind when he came to Bremen from Guinea at the age of 18. He actually wanted to become a professional soccer player, but he would have taken any other job, he says: “Because I wanted to build my existence here, I wanted to belong.”
But Ibrahima Bah lived in refugee accommodation for four years and was neither allowed to work nor learn German. Only when he got married did he get a residence permit and thus a work permit. That same day he found a job as a waiter in a café.
Work bans and jungle of authorities
Ibrahima Bah’s story is not an isolated case, as work bans for refugees represent a major hurdle. They are generally not allowed to work in the first three months. After that, there are still restrictions, for example for everyone who lives in an initial reception facility. In the future, they will be allowed to work after a six-month stay, the Federal Cabinet decided yesterday. In principle, there should also be a work permit for tolerated people, unlike before.
In many cases, the authorities currently have to spend a long time checking whether they will grant permission. “We are in danger of losing a lot of people because they have the feeling that they cannot arrive in Germany,” says Anna Lena Hemmer. She is the integration coordinator in the Burgenland district in Saxony-Anhalt and knows the difficulties for refugees who want to work: “The jungle of authorities is too complicated.” Immigration authorities, social welfare offices, job centers, as well as various offices for the recognition of professional qualifications – refugees have to go to all of these places and fill out a lot of forms there.
Targeted advice under one roof
The CDU district administrator Götz Ulrich in the Burgenland district wanted to regulate things differently and founded a migration agency in 2018 with everyone involved under one roof. They guide refugees through the jungle of authorities and look closely at each individual case: What do the people bring with them, what difficulties are there? Then the necessary support is organized, for example measles vaccinations for Ukrainian children so that they can go to kindergarten and their mothers can go to work.
For Anna Lena Hemmer, the goal is very clear: to get as many refugees as possible into work. Then they no longer need aid from the state and instead pay taxes and support the economy as workers. And there are vacancies everywhere, in the Burgenland district as well as in the rest of Germany.
Work is central to integration
In addition, work is crucial to arriving in your new home. In addition to contacts with locals, recognition also plays a role: “Work is a value in itself in our society,” says Katja Schmidt, a sociologist at the Humboldt University in Berlin. The majority of Germans are in favor of offering protection to people in need: “But if the impression arises that refugees are receiving money from the state without anything in return, a certain sense of justice is disturbed and this is then rejected by many.”
But is it realistic that all refugees work? No, says Yuliya Kosyakova from the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB). After all, this is not the case with the locals either, whether for health reasons or because of child care. But the proportion could be increased significantly: in the first period after their arrival, few refugees work, but after five years in Germany, around half of them work. And IAB surveys show that 70 percent of refugees want to work.
Good jobs instead of just any quick job
But Yuliya Kosyakova warns against only relying on quick mediation. Countries like Denmark and the Netherlands boast high employment rates among refugees. The motto there is “Work First”, meaning getting any work quickly, even if it’s poorly paid jobs. Research shows that this does not have long-term success. The migration researcher advocates a more sustainable strategy: It is better if the refugees learn German well, do training or expand their professional skills. “In the long term, this leads to fewer relapses into the social systems and has a more positive effect on people because they earn more and have good jobs.”
And it also helps better against the shortage of skilled workers: This cannot be solved through immigration alone, as 400,000 skilled workers would have to come to Germany every year. But instead of just ending up in simple unskilled jobs, one or the other can become a skilled worker. Like Ibrahima Bah, who is now an educator and runs a dormitory for young refugees in Bremen – in his daily work he makes it clear to them how important a good school leaving certificate is so that they can get a good job later.
More on this topic in tagesschau future podcast: let’s assume.