Among low-skilled native Germans and newcomers, there is practically no difference in employment
OECD and European Commission experts examined vital aspects such as education, healthcare, living conditions, income levels, and employment opportunities for immigrants in countries not only of the European Union but also many others: besides Europe, the prospects of newcomers were compared and assessed in countries such as the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Israel.
As Russkaya Germaniya notes, the large-scale report titled 'Immigration Indicators 2015', presented simultaneously in Berlin and Paris, is balm on the wounds of the leadership of the Federal Employment Agency, which recorded historically low unemployment rates in the summer months of 2015. With regard to Germany, international experts came to an unexpected and somewhat surprising conclusion: the country is doing virtually everything possible to integrate immigrants into the labor market, notes OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria.
Nevertheless, children of immigrants born in Germany have twice as poor chances of finding employment compared to children of German parents: according to 2013 data, 15% of newcomers' children were unemployed, while the proportion of unemployed youth among children whose parents were also born in Germany was half that. Among all OECD member states, the gap is significantly lower; in Europe, it does not exceed one third. The same applies to employment of immigrants and their children with higher education. The employment rate of well-educated newcomers in Germany is 7% lower than that of well-educated locals; among low-skilled native Germans and newcomers, the difference is virtually absent.
It should be noted that the federal government also came to similar conclusions last year, having commissioned a report titled 'The Situation of Foreigners in Germany'. Finally, 28% of immigrants and their children have higher qualifications than required for the jobs they were able to obtain. In this regard, many other countries are doing significantly better.
From the OECD's perspective, young people with an immigrant background find it extremely difficult to get jobs in the public sector of the German economy. In Germany, only 7% of employees in state and municipal organizations are immigrants and their children; on average in the European Union, every fifth civil servant has foreign roots. This indicator, according to the authors of 'Immigration Indicators 2015', is particularly critical: in other countries, this sector successfully functions as a notable accelerator of integration.
In many other areas – from education to income levels – OECD and European Commission researchers note a much more pressing need to eliminate Germany's lag behind many other countries than in the area of employment. For example, in education, immigrants who came to Germany and their children lag behind those who chose other countries. According to the OECD, only one in six newcomers in Germany obtains higher or secondary vocational education, whereas among residents without a migration background, it is one in three (only Austria has worse indicators in this parameter). For comparison: nearly 50% of immigrants and their children who moved to the United States and Finland receive quality education, over 50% in Israel and the United Kingdom, and about 70% in Canada. In all these countries, the percentage of educated foreigners compared to native residents is in favor of newcomers.
In Germany, already in school, children of immigrants perform noticeably worse than their German peers: only 4% of the former and 13% of the latter get good grades. On average in Europe, 13% of immigrant children perform well in school.
In what German immigrants and their descendants practically do not yield to newcomers who chose other developed European countries is in terms of home ownership. In other countries, immigrants own housing much less often than native residents. In Germany, there is also a difference, but it is the lowest among all OECD member states.
Overall, from the OECD's perspective, a simple relationship emerges between the number of immigrants and their position in society: integration issues are successfully resolved in countries with many newcomers, and notably worse in those with few.