Association of Cities and Municipalities of Germany called for accelerating the integration of Ukrainians into the labor market, giving them the opportunity to get a job without knowing the German language.
As the League reports, as of early February, of the 1.2 million Ukrainians who left for Germany because of the war, only 25% were employed.
"There is still too much bureaucracy when it comes to labor market integration. It should be possible to start working without first taking language and integration courses,” — said the head of the Association, Andre Berghegger.
According to him, integration and language learning activities should be carried out in parallel with the start of work.
The head of the Association also noted that the entire system of integration courses for Ukrainians is stagnating .
According to the Federal Employment Agency, in October last year, 129 thousand Ukrainians attended integration courses. Of these, 95,000 completed the courses in February-March, the rest will complete by September 2024.
"We must be prepared for the fact that refugees from Ukraine will continue to arrive to us. It is also not yet expected that the majority of Ukrainians will return to their homeland in the near future. Therefore, we need sustainable integration structures for this group,” – stated Berhegger.
Prepared by: Nina Petrovich