HUMANITY – THE FACE OF GERMANY
According to a survey by the Ifo research institute in Munich, only 7% of German companies have hired refugees in the past two years. The study surveyed more than a thousand HR managers, Ifo reports. The largest number of refugees were employed in the service sector (28%). Also, 34% of entrepreneurs said they plan to hire refugees in the current or 2017 year. The main obstacles cited were lack of German language skills and lack of necessary qualifications – 86% and 46% of respondents stated this.
But language can be learned and necessary qualifications can be obtained through learning by doing, says Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer. “Germany is a wonderful country. Therefore, we must be especially attentive and hospitable to people who are in trouble and fleeing war.” The German sportswear company and 35 other German firms such as Airbus, Opel, Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Telekom, Deutsche Post, Boss, Henkel, Siemens, Bosch, Viessmann, VW and others have founded the project “Wir zusammen” (“We are together”), which aims to integrate refugees into the labor market.
Everyone helps as they can. ThyssenKrupp offers refugees 300 places for internships and in-company education. Siemens is ready to provide 100 refugees with internship opportunities, Deutsche Post – even a thousand. Clifford Chance provides free language courses, Airbus Group provides free medical assistance. Adidas employees, in addition to implementing pilot projects for refugee employment, even do sports with them.
Opel is not lagging behind and cooperates with the state government of Hesse, the Federal Employment Agency, the Initiative Joblinge organization and the project papagei.com and supports the mentoring program IN CHARGE, whose task is the successful integration of refugees into the labor market. The program is aimed at refugees with a basic level of German and an already approved asylum application. Within the project, tandems and language courses are organized, and over 12 weeks, training and seminars on employment, proper document completion, and interview preparation are conducted.
“Refugee. Helper. These are not the categories we should be guided by. We are all people. And it is humanity that should remain the face of Germany. We have already successfully conducted more than 100 tandems and employment courses and are moving from the regional to the national level,” Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO of Opel, says about the plans.
Recently, DZ Bank, as part of the “Wir zusammen” program, offered 50 places for internships at the company. “Both sides benefit here, as different traditions and different mentalities enrich our own culture,” says Wolfgang Kirsch, Chairman of the Board of DZ Bank Group, full of optimistic hopes.
LEADERS OF INTEGRATION
Some projects have been implemented since last year. For example, the German state railway company Deutsche Bahn took on 15 refugees with skills in electrical engineering for retraining in Munich in November. The integration experience proved successful, so in 2016 Deutsche Bahn plans to provide about 300 places for training young people without vocational education. In early 2016, under the Chance Plus program, refugees received 35 places in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg. The program includes dual training and intensive German language courses. There is also a program for newcomers with experience in electronics – at Deutsche Bahn they can learn German, improve their skills and qualifications over 28 months, and then get a full-time job.
“We offer newcomers full integration into the German labor market. Internship, further training, and simultaneous German language learning are the ideal way out of the situation where refugees need to catch up on both quickly,” says Ulrich Weber, Head of Training and Personnel Development at Deutsche Bahn.
In November, Daimler took on refugees of various ages – from 20 to 51 years old. Over 14 weeks, people from Afghanistan, Gambia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, and Eritrea familiarized themselves with production processes at the plant producing Mercedes-Benz passenger cars, and in small groups of 10 people learned German. The moral and financial investments paid off – the newcomers successfully handle tasks, and in the first half of 2016, Daimler offers 300 places for internships and 50 places for vocational training at the company.
Already in February, 40 newly arrived refugees participated in the program. “But for us, not professional but social integration is important, so within the project 'Brückenpraktikum für Flüchtlinge und Asylbewerber' we also cooperate with the Federal Employment Agency and regional job centers. Refugees gain basic knowledge of the company profile, attend daily German language courses, and take an integration course,” says Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Daimler.
EDUCATE THE REFUGEE FROM YOUTH
Refugees arrive with children and teenagers who need to be educated, and high school students gradually integrated into the labor market. So Lufthansa helps refugees adapt to a new education and master the knowledge and skills of a foreign mentality. The airline, together with Help Alliance and the Hamburg association Basis & Woge, initiated a project in October 2015 aimed at post-school education for refugee children at the State Vocational School for Construction Technology (Staatliche Gewerbeschule für Bautechnik). While still schoolchildren, future students receive individual recommendations on which field of education matches their interests and abilities, and also learn how to properly fill out documents for admission to the school.
“With quality integration of refugees, we have nothing to fear except cultural enrichment. After all, this is a story about how, in the given circumstances, we should not protect ourselves but create ourselves, and we can cope with the problems that arise after accepting refugees. Any person can be brought up to speed, and we are working on that together,” says Bettina Volkens, Head of Personnel and Law at Lufthansa.
A thousand employees of Deutsche Bank are also integrated into the refugee integration program: they help fill out forms and open accounts. In addition, Deutsche Bank financially supports German language courses, organizes scholarships for schoolchildren with a migration background, and provides space for educational courses in Kronberg.
The youth program “Think Big” by Telefónica Deutschland is aimed at young people aged 14 to 25. Within the program, young people carry out various projects on the theme “Flight” (“Flucht”), in which refugees themselves participate. Meetings with authorities and ministries, various discussions, as well as cultural and entertainment events are organized so that newly arrived schoolchildren and students can adapt to the country faster.
But not only individual companies help refugees; whole job search websites for refugees are also being created. For example, the online job exchange for refugees Workeer, which was developed by two students – David Jakob and Philipp Kühn – began operating in test mode back in July. It now features over 2000 internships and jobs for refugees, mostly in IT and engineering with salaries from 2000 to 6000 euros – in these fields language is secondary, as professional knowledge is what matters.
The educational center Arrivo Berlin organizes educational seminars as part of the program “Refugee is not a profession,” during which newcomers acquire new professional skills for work in skilled trades. More than 200 companies cooperate with this center, and experienced employees train refugees in specialties such as carpenter, baker, confectioner, car and truck mechanic, jeweler, and tailor. But the selection is not limited to these; for example, water supply companies Fleurop or Vattenfall also train new employees.
“The fact that skilled trades are short of hands is a reality. Many potential training places for new personnel are not even half filled; there is a lack of motivation to work in such industries. So companies are not only nobly providing new places for refugees but also filling a staff shortage,” explains Jona Krieg, an employee of Arrivo Berlin.
“REFUGEE IS NOT A PROFESSION”
Germany may seem like a “promised land” for refugees, but in reality, that is not entirely the case. All existing projects for integrating refugees into the labor market are a drop in the ocean because there are far fewer places and opportunities than there are people from Syria, Afghanistan, or Morocco. Many enterprises, according to Carola Burkert, an employee of the Institute for Employment Research, expect refugees to return home after the end of hostilities. It is this fact that deters companies from cooperating with refugee employment centers. After all, training and integration into the work process, German language courses cost a lot of money, which, at first glance, may never pay off.
“I would not consider investing in refugee education a waste. They have the right to complete their education here if they have started, whether it be school, university, or vocational school. If refugees are working, they can stay for another two years, even if their country of origin is no longer declared a danger zone. All this is not yet legally regulated, but it is on the agenda. After all the knowledge and experience they have gained, they can return to their homeland and continue to develop their country,” says Carola Burkert confidently.
The second problem is paperwork, which can take from several months to a year. Without a work permit, which refugees receive only three months after being granted asylum, no one has the right to even wash floors in a nearby diner. It is very risky to teach German to a refugee and place them in a company for training if they have not yet received approval to reside in Germany. “There is currently discussion about whether to teach German to all newcomers immediately after their registration at the border, regardless of whether they have already received asylum or are in the waiting stage,” says Ms. Burkert. “After all, refugees do nothing for months simply because they are not entitled to anything. This problem needs to be urgently addressed.”
According to Carola Burkert, there is another significant problem: refugees over 40 have little chance of being integrated into German society. Moreover, a unified system for integrating refugees into the labor market has not yet been developed – the composition of newcomers is too diverse. Among refugees, there are good specialists, and there are those who have not even finished school – the range is truly huge. Young people are better educated than those over 35, but the number of refugees who have completed secondary education is quite small – 30%.
Furthermore, for example, Syria has a completely different educational model; Syrian certificates and diplomas are difficult to get recognized in Germany, and many refugees arrived without them – when fleeing war, you are unlikely to think about grabbing your university diploma. They have to be taken at their word or start from scratch.
"From the point of view of the German economy, only German education is the best. Nevertheless, refugees who have completed a university degree in their home country have some chances to go through the procedure of recognition of their diplomas and certificates – though, for now, only IQ programs help us to check the competence of new specialists," claims Jona Krieg. "But all these problems are solvable, because the majority of refugees really want and can work, wish to get back on their feet faster and take care of themselves independently. With such motivation and joint work of the government, enterprises and firms, and civil initiatives, we will be able to make integration even more successful."