A new study has found that refugees in Germany have overall integrated well into the workforce. But many are overqualified for the jobs that they do.
Obada Hijjo has not had an easy time since he arrived in Germany four years ago. Trained as a policeman in Turkey, the 30-year-old Palestinian initially worked for the police in the West Bank. But, when a case he was involved resulted in a threat to his life, he and his wife were forced to leave the country. Now he is stranded in Germany with "tolerated status" as a refugee , which means that he doesn't have official residency but is allowed to stay.
Despite his police training and a degree in political science and public administration, also from Turkey, Hijjo works as a taxi driver in Berlin. Germany lacks workers in both his areas of expertise, but the only other job Hijjo has had in his four years in the country is as a package deliveryman.
He can't work as a police officer, because he's not a German citizen, but two months ago, after an extended battle with German bureaucracy, he finally managed to get his political science degree recognized. "The German authority confirmed that I have done a degree in this area in a foreign country," he told DW. "Now I have an appointment at the job center at the end of the month. I'd like to be a public administration clerk."
It should have only taken nine months to get this recognition confirmed, Hijjo said, "but I kept having to get something else from the university. They kept saying, 'get this document, get that document, no, not that one, this one.' They didn't understand that I'm Palestinian, not Turkish. How am I supposed to go to Turkey? I only have a tolerated status, so I can't leave Germany. I got a bit of a headache with the authorities."
That experience is something Sanaa Abukalam can relate to. Having fled the war in Syria five years ago, she found herself in Dresden, eastern Germany, where she was soon confronted with everyday racism, including being berated by people on the streets. "A woman with a headscarf has so many problems," she told DW. "Racism here is such a problem."
Abukalam spent several years learning German, but she was unable to get her qualifications in alternative medicine recognized in Germany, and was grateful when she eventually found work in a shoe shop earlier this year. "It all took such a long time," she said. Her dream, she said, is to work as a social worker helping people like her.
Such experiences are common among the hundreds of thousands of people who have sought asylum in Germany in the past few years. A recent study by the government-funded Institute for Employment Research (IAB), found that 41% of refugees who had been in Germany for six years said they were employed below the level they had before the arrived. The figure is even higher for Ukrainian refugees, more than half are working in jobs for which they're overqualified, the IAB found.
It seems clear that there's a particular mismatch between qualification and job among refugees, according to IAB researcher and co-author of the study Philipp Jaschke. "Part of it is down to the fact that a lot of jobs can be carried out in other countries without a formal job qualification," he told DW. "But there are a lot of jobs which you need a three-year qualification for in Germany."
Another reason is that refugees often don't have the language skills when they arrive in a foreign country. "Compared to other groups of migrants, refugees have often fled very spontaneously, because they've fled war, forced conscription and persecution, and so on," Jaschke said. "That means they're often very ill-prepared for the country they've come to."
Nevertheless, Herbert Brücker, the IAB's head of research, was keen to underline that the overall employment rates among refugees are very positive. "We thought in 2015: If we reach an employment rate of 50% after five or six years, we will be very good. And we were at 54% in 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. So we have exceeded expectations," Brücker told DW.
And the longer refugees have been in Germany, the more they are employed: "Among people who have been here for seven or eight years, we have an employment rate of 62%. That's pretty good. That's only about ten, twelve percentage points less than in the German population."
The IAB has regularly assessed the integration of immigrants into the German labor market since 2016, and the current study was based on the self-reported data of asylum-seekers who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2019. The total sample was 10,111 adults who were interviewed at least once and up to six times, including 8,799 working-age refugees (ages 18 to 64) who have arrived since 2013.
Sixty-five percent of employed refugees who have been in Germany for six years worked full-time in 2021. The median gross monthly wage of full-time employed refugees increased from €1,660 ($1,820) in the first two years after arrival in Germany to €2,037 in the sixth year.
Refugees tend to be significantly younger than the average age of German employees, and those starting their working life earn less than the more experienced.
"Among 18-to-25-year-olds, the earnings of refugees are 75% of those of their colleagues of the same age in Germany. The gap is not that large, and it will also level out over time. But there is still a lot of room for improvement," Brücker said.
I have moved to a new country myself (from within Europe to within Europe). I feel such articles often underestimate how important culture and language is for us to work together. Beyond just skills and education. Ironically though, employment is a quick way to learn how to fit in.
I used to work with Germans and want to second your opinion.
I'm Russian and I noticed a lot of simialries between myself and my German colleagues in terms of work (all IT related), leisure, many opinions, etc. Still, we all started glowing whenever someone said as little as one word in another's language: people often started taking about differences between the languages, shared their experiences, some spoke both Russian and German a little, which always seemed to have brought people together, even if the speaker was very limited in their knowledge.
To many people, the culture you happen to inherit and initially develop in is very dear to them, even if they don't realize that at the moment - they often feel very warm when they see other people showing genuine interest or respect towards it. It's really peculiar how you dont notice your culture much unless foreigners express any interest towards it right in front of you.
Here in Italy the situation is the same. They are issuing more and more working visas for immigrants and refugees in order to exploit their skills underpaid and without minimum labor rights. The propaganda, after demonizing immigrants for every possible crime before the elections, has now changed tones saying foreigners need to be employed in order to "pay retirement pensions" for the elderly and sustain the healthcare system with the taxes.
I don't really think it's necessarily exploitive. Western countries place great value on education/training and certifications. And there is a clear difference on how such education/certification is obtained in the west vs other places of the world.
Acting like they are equal when in many cases they aren't is just not a good idea. Especially for someone like a police officer.
But these things are ending up to be super absurd at some points, when even some Austrian degrees are not accepted in Germany. At least there should be EU wide acceptance.
Most of the barriers are actually language and bureaucracy, not qualifications. Even skilled people with engineering and medical degrees go through the same challenges in Germany so they instead often choose to go to Anglophone countries, Netherlands, Singapore, etc where all engineering jobs are done in English and have minimal bureaucracy.
These problems combined with high taxes are are not good problems to have for a country trying to be attractive to foreign workers. With such stupid policies, they'll only attract low skilled workers. Refugees are different as they don't have a choice but at least you can accept their qualifications properly and give them a job equivalent to their skill level.
Take India, Netherlands and Singapore for example. English is not the native language of these countries but corporations often operate in English which makes them so much more welcoming to foreign talent.
Germany is playing by outdated rules. It needs to adapt, else it's might will suffer unfortunately.
refugees who had been in Germany for six years said they were employed below the level they had before the arrived.
Isn't that to be expected? They come to a new place, they have no network, there may be language and culture differences, and their former experience both education and employers are likely unknown in the new place.
How can anyone expect they can just continue in a new place on the same or higher level?
In an ideal world they could, but who imagines this world to be ideal, even without being an immigrant?
IDK why you can't just say English speaking countries, but ok??
Are you sure you are comparing apples to apples? The article also says this:
Another reason is that refugees often don’t have the language skills when they arrive in a foreign country. “Compared to other groups of migrants
I don't see how English speaking countries should be able to eliminate those barriers, maybe they do it better, but you claim the issue doesn't exist??? That sounds like fantasy.
Obviously English speaking countries often have an advantage, when English is often an official language in many 3rd world countries, and a very widespread 2nd language. Which German practically never is.
It's the same in Canada. That's why I almost don't see the point of letting people immigrate if they're not going to be able to work as anything other than Uber drivers or whatever. It's not fair that they have degrees that don't count for anything here. I realize for many refugees life is much improved even just being here but it's always embarrassing to meet an Uber driver who is an engineer with a masters degree at home, and this is all we'll let them be.
You're assuming the standards are higher in the west instead of simply being a pay to play system. Meanwhile they can take advantage of yet another pool of labor.
Meh.. it's just gate keeping by locals. Many middle eastern graduates are very intelligent, especially in Medical, Engineering and Mathematics. Iranian doctors are very skilled.
Filipinos are extremely skilled in nursing and medical adjacent fields, something that ageing countries like Germany can absolutely use but bureaucracy means not many Filipinos are coming up Germany.
It's purely a language barrier and bureaucracy thing. It's a global world. Let's operate formally in English like how many companies in many countries default to.
That's why I almost don't see the point of letting people immigrate
So let me see if I get this right. Instead of fixing or alleviating the difficulties of getting a foreign degree recognized, we should just ban immigrants. That's dumb as fuck
No I just think we should do better. Like we have so many people without GPs and so many MDs who can't work because of qualifications? Create a bridge program for them to work here, for example.
It’s not fair that they have degrees that don’t count for anything here.
Fair to whom? Are those degrees from institutions that are regarded as credible by the local country? If not, what evidence is there that the lack of value given to certain foreign degrees is improper or otherwise not based in reality?
In the Czech Republic refugees (no matter the education or experience) now often earn around €700 - €900, with non-refugee average salary of around €1600 (which is not enough for a comfortable living), and a huge percentage of Ukrainian refugees, after staying here (in CR) for a few months, are moving to Germany and other countries. I'm not trying to say that it's all good in Germany, but it really puts things into perspective.
If only it would be so. In the last 2-3 years everything has become extremely expensive. A lot of my friends with cars who live not far from the border regularly go to Germany for basic products, because even things like bread, milk, eggs, etc. (that's not what they go there for, but still) are often more expensive here without discounts. Housing is just outrageous. With much lower salaries, the prices for a square meter are about the same on average. Surprisingly, it's not discussed as actively as about a lot of other countries. I'm ranting because I actually loved this country and really wanted to live here.
As of May 2023, 65% of the Ukrainian refugees that left Ukraine starting February 2022 and decided to stay in Poland found a job—so, within around a year, as opposed to 5-6 years as in the article. Cultural similarity here is likely making it much, much simpler. For those who want to read more about the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, this report by Polish National Bank (Narodowy Bank Polski, NBP) might be useful: https://nbp.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Raport_Imigranci_EN.pdf (in English!), there is a lot of interesting details.
Now he is stranded in Germany with "tolerated status" as a refugee , which means that he doesn't have official residency but is allowed to stay.
Despite his police training and a degree in political science and public administration, also from Turkey, Hijjo works as a taxi driver in Berlin.
Germany lacks workers in both his areas of expertise, but the only other job Hijjo has had in his four years in the country is as a package deliveryman.
Having fled the war in Syria five years ago, she found herself in Dresden, eastern Germany, where she was soon confronted with everyday racism, including being berated by people on the streets.
The IAB has regularly assessed the integration of immigrants into the German labor market since 2016, and the current study was based on the self-reported data of asylum-seekers who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2019.
Refugees tend to be significantly younger than the average age of German employees, and those starting their working life earn less than the more experienced.