Germany wants Ukraine refugees to fend for themselves and find work

BERLIN – Like a million of her compatriots, hairdresser Valentyna Vysotska fled Ukraine for Germany when Russia invaded. After a 10-month crash course to learn German, she found work in a hair salon in Berlin.

“My German isn’t great but my boss, my colleagues and the clients are all very understanding,” Ms Vysotska, 54, said.

As far as Chancellor Olaf Scholz is concerned, she is an example he wishes he can see more of.

Among the Ukrainians who have arrived over the last two years, only 170,000 have found work.

Mr Scholz recently himself pressed the newcomers to stand on their own feet rather than rely on social handouts.

“We have offered them integration and German classes. Now they must find work,” he said.

The urgency is prompted not only by financial reasons. The cost of welcoming newcomers is certainly heavy – between 5.5 billion euros (S$8.08 billion) and six billion euros have been earmarked in 2024 alone for Ukrainians.

But Germany is also suffering from a serious manpower shortage and can do with more hands on deck.

And there is a political imperative for Mr Scholz’s government to achieve more integration success stories.

Immigration and integration are hot button topics in upcoming European elections, with the far right driving an argument that Europe’s biggest economy, currently ailing, needs to take care of its own first.

Mindful of the fact that the far-right AfD party entered parliament in 2017 on the back of popular anger over the influx of a million Syrians and Iraqis in the two preceding years, Mr Scholz’s government is wary about what a repeat of that fury could spell for the EU polls.

To take the sting off the far right’s arguments, the government recently moved to toughen rules for asylum seekers.

Among them is a new payment card that provides social handouts to refugees as credits that can be used only locally – essentially scrapping a possibility for migrants to send cash back to their home countries.

But for Ukrainian refugees in particular, the key in the government’s strategy is to inject them into the job market, which is sorely lacking workers.

Ms Vysotska’s boss Civan Ucar recalled the relief in finding the Ukrainian, who worked 35 years as a hairdresser back in her home country, at a job fair.

“It is very difficult to find qualified personnel,” he said, pointing to Germany’s ageing population.

Mr Ucar shrugged off Ms Vysotska’s imperfect German, saying it could only improve while she is at work. “We learn German faster when we’re working because we are required to speak with our colleagues,” he said.

But language is only just one of many hurdles for Ukrainian job seekers.

Mr Andreas Peikert, who runs a Berlin job centre, told the TAZ daily that the Ukrainians who have sought refuge in Germany are mostly women and children, but “we have too few kindergarten and school spots”.

“If a mother can’t be sure about where she can get childcare, she won’t be looking for work,” he noted.

A study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation also found that Germany puts up far more administrative hurdles than countries like Poland or the Netherlands where between 60 and 70 per cent of Ukrainians are employed.

Professionals have to obtain equivalent qualifications in Germany to be allowed to practise, and applications have to be made for degrees to be approved and recognised by authorities.

A high level of German is often required for white collar work, essentially ruling out many newcomers who find learning a language from scratch difficult at adulthood.

The government is pushing major companies to be more lenient on language requirements, and to offer help for the new employees to improve their qualifications.

But the authorities said newcomers too have to lower their expectations and take the first step.

Laying bare the desperation at inciting more to take on work, Employment Minister Hubertus Heil said: “It’s not about finding the job of your dreams, but to enter the job market, and then climb up the ranks.” AFP