Germany is experiencing the largest influx of refugees since 2015. Will Ukrainians who fled the war and successfully reunite find education and employment in Germany?
Since the beginning of Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine, Germany has registered about 280,000 Ukrainian refugees. Under the new EU rules, they are allowed to operate legally. But is it so easy for Ukrainians fleeing the war to find work?
German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is talking to heads of federal states and various ministries about opportunities for people fleeing the war in Ukraine to find work in Germany. Considering that the level of education in Ukraine corresponds to the international level, the opportunities are generally good.
History of dentist Igor Belozerov
Igor Belozerov is a dentist from Ukraine. When the war began, he went on vacation abroad. He did not return to Ukraine and temporarily lived with friends near Osnabrück. Igor wanted to stay in Germany and find a job here, but it wasn’t that easy to do.
He is prevented from finding work through the system of recognition of diplomas and vocational education. According to his acquaintance, Igor will officially be able to work in his specialty in Germany after only one or two years. During this time, he will need to learn the language and confirm his professional qualifications – despite the fact that Belozerov has already worked as a doctor in Ukraine.
“The process of recognizing a diploma is complicated, lengthy and expensive,” Martina Müller-Wacker said in an interview with DW.
How Ukrainians can find housing and employment in EU countries
The vocational integration expert is calling on federal states to offer free confirmation of diplomas and provide special scholarships for the professions most in demand in Germany. Often migrants do not even try to confirm their diploma, fear all these hurdles, and are therefore forced to work in low -paying jobs.
According to Müller-Wacker, approximately 1,500 different structures in Germany at the federal and state levels are responsible for recognizing professional qualifications. There are professions where confirmation of a diploma is required, and those where it is not required. To help Ukrainians understand this complex system, a special brochure was published in Ukrainian.
Recently, several private initiatives have emerged aimed at ensuring that refugees from Ukraine can find work. Online resources such as UATalents or Imagine Ukraine offer jobs to Ukrainians, and Deutsche Bahn has set up a hotline in Ukrainian and Russian for job seekers.
Will the children be able to study
Almost half of all refugees from Ukraine are children. “But in all the federal states there are not enough teachers and institutions for them,” said Juliana Karakayani from the Higher Evangelical School in Berlin.
Karakayali is not very optimistic about the fact that Ukrainian children will be successfully integrated into German schools, schools and kindergartens are less prepared for it. But he considers it important that the children of Ukrainian refugees study with everyone, so that they can learn the language faster.
In various federal lands, the issue of school attendance of Ukrainian children is regulated in a different way. According to Karakayali, children in Berlin can attend school from their arrival. But in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Bavaria it depends on status, and taking place in a school can take up to 6 months.
The deciding factor for Ukrainians is exactly where they want to live in Germany. People without any contact and relatives in Germany depend on where they are assigned. This process occurs according to the rule that the lands with the densest population receive the most people. And the federal states are already distributing people where there is room for them.
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Herbert Brücker of the IAB institute warned against sending refugees to regions with poor infrastructure. Although there were empty apartments there, there were no jobs. And the experience of recent years shows that refugees who can choose their own place of residence are finding work faster.
With all the complexities of future integration, the most important thing is not always clear – whether those who fled the war in Ukraine want to stay in Germany, and whether they should begin the process of confirming their diploma and looking for work . For Igor Belozerov, this issue has already been resolved. “We are staying here, our house is destroyed, and we still have to start at the beginning,” concludes a dentist from Kyiv.
Source: Russian Service DW
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Source: korrespondent
