The German state provides newcomers with the opportunity to attend integration courses
As "Russkaya Germaniya" notes, the importance of learning German for life in Germany, even temporarily, is unquestionable. Work, communication, filling out paperwork – integration is impossible without minimal knowledge, and a normal lifestyle without quality knowledge.
In April 2016, then-Federal President Joachim Gauck formulated the necessity of language skills as follows: "The sooner people who are likely to stay learn German and can work, the better for all of us. Otherwise, we risk that boredom and disappointment will lead to an increase in violence and crime or become fertile ground for political or religious extremism."
To prevent the situation from going that far, the German state provides newcomers with the opportunity to attend integration courses, designed for six months and consisting of two parts. 600 hours are spent on language learning, and another 100 on an "orientation" course about life in Germany – German history, culture, and legal system.
The language course is intended to help students reach level B1 (Goethe Institute certificate, providing a unified assessment of German language skills). This is a fairly low bar; such knowledge is usually enough to get by in everyday life, but insufficient for skilled work. Upon completion of the integration course, an exam is taken and a certificate is issued, which significantly aids in finding employment.
The success of integration courses is modest. According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, BAMF), last year 339,578 people attended the courses. However, only 289,751 took the final exam. Only 48.7 percent of these fewer than 300,000 participants managed to pass, reaching level B1. Four out of ten (40.8%) received a certificate corresponding to the lower level A2, and the rest (10.5%) failed the language test.
A year earlier, a similar picture was observed: almost 340,000 people were enrolled in integration courses, but only about 100,000 passed the exam at level B1. In 2017, the federal government allocated 610 million euros for funding language courses.
The Federal Office for Migration cites the following reasons for failure: some course participants are ill, some find work or move away and therefore do not show up for the exam. School directors offering courses refer to the traumatic experience of fleeing war, which prevents many from coping with studies, lack of school education, and a "culture of learning" that would help them master the basics of a foreign language.
A more critical view reveals that refugees skip classes frequently. Officials from the Court of Auditors (Bundesrechnungshof) a year ago initiated inspections of 528 courses provided and funded by the Federal Employment Agency. The results were disheartening: a significant portion of allocated funds is wasted, according to the Court of Auditors' report. The number of actual participants in language courses steadily decreases by the end of the course: at the time of inspections, 43.3 percent of those enrolled attended classes.
The organizations providing the opportunity to learn German often cheat: for language schools, state funding is a long-awaited sinecure, and the business is experiencing unprecedented growth. Cases have been identified where all foreigners, including newborns and one-and-a-half-year-old children, were enrolled en masse in courses, and funding was received multiple times for the same student.
These inspections only covered courses of the Federal Employment Agency – there are no uniform rules or quality standards for them. Requirements for courses conducted under the auspices of BAMF are significantly higher. There are regulations for attendance monitoring and sanctions. How they are implemented and how often inspections are conducted, the agency does not disclose.
Tempting business prospects contribute to course organizers not providing real attendance data – the system itself encourages deception. 1,736 organizations compete for the right to conduct courses in Germany – mainly folk high schools (Volkshochschule), private language schools, but also charitable organizations Caritas and Arbeiterwohlfahrt. For each hour of teaching one person, they receive 3.90 euros. Theoretically, another 1.95 euros per hour should be paid by the students themselves, but in most cases, the state pays for them – for recipients of Hartz IV social benefits, BAMF pays.
However, course organizers do not receive money for those who are absent from class without a valid reason. This is the insidiousness of the system: schools' costs remain the same regardless of whether 5 or 25 participants are in the classroom. The conclusion is simple: the more students, the higher the profit. Schools have no interest in reporting truants, and supervisory organizations do not monitor their numbers. Probably, mass truancy, rather than a universal lack of language learning talent and psychological trauma, explains the dismal exam pass rates.
A way out of the situation could be forcing students to pay for missed classes out of their own pockets, reducing benefits, refusing to extend temporary residence permits – but the state could take all these measures only if it received real data on truants. Obtaining such data from language course organizers is unlikely, and organizing blanket inspections is impossible.
It turns out that in calls for integration, one can only rely on the personal drive of those interested in it, and turn a blind eye – and throw away money – on those who hope to live in Germany without it.