The employment of refugees from Ukraine, as well as from other countries in Germany, is increasing despite the increasingly difficult labor market.

The so-called job turbo, launched at the end of last year, is beginning to take effect, said the federal commissioner for the integration of refugees into the labor market, Daniel Terzenbach, in an interview with the German Press Agency (dpa).

“We see that the increase in the number of jobs is moving in the right direction the more intensively we work with people – even though the economy is currently bad,” he emphasized.

“We employed around 2,500 Ukrainians in March 2023 and more than 5,000 in March 2024,” said Terzenbach. “We have over 170,000 more unemployed people than in the same month last year, and yet the employment of Ukrainians is increasing significantly.”

Employment has also increased among people from eight asylum seeker countries – especially in Syria and Afghanistan. From this group, 13,076 people entered the primary labor market in March. In March 2023, there were only 11,155 of them – with an overall even more favorable labor market situation.

“Refugees who came to Germany in the first refugee wave in 2015 and 2016 are integrated into the labor market above average, even in international comparison. There has been quite a lot of labor market integration,” said Terzenbach. Around 70 percent of men from Syria have a job. “We still have some catching up to do when it comes to the integration of women,” he told dpa.

In the future, Terzenbach wants to avoid mainly well-educated Ukrainians remaining too long in German courses or other courses. It is important to get people into employment quickly. However, training should then continue in order to specifically address the shortage of qualified staff.

A doctor from Ukraine, for example, could initially work in a hospital without a German license and perform important support tasks – before later being able to obtain a license to practice medicine in Germany and work as a full-time doctor. Similar opportunities also exist in other professions.

Another finding from the work with refugees so far is that employment agencies cooperate much more closely with their community.

-Now we know how important it is to involve interest groups such as migration associations, social welfare associations, and volunteer structures much more in labor market integration,” said Terzenbach, adding that “there must be more presence on social media channels in order to counter misinformation,” dpa reports.

Source: fenix-magazin.de