One million unemployed Ukrainians in Germany

Published 15 May 2024 at 10.57

Foreign. More than two years after the war in Ukraine started, the employment rate among the over a million Ukrainians who came to Germany is very low. This puts pressure on the government, which has presented the refugees as a way to reduce the labor shortage.

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– More Ukrainian refugees should start working in Germany, stated Olaf Scholz during a speech in Potsdam this weekend.

The German chancellor reacted to new information that fewer than two out of ten Ukrainian asylum seekers are working in the country, writes Focus.

This is a big problem for Germany, which is the country that has received the most Ukrainian refugees in the EU – 1.3 million people, or about a third of all Ukrainian refugees.

According to the Polish Economic Institute, which examined a number of countries in its study, only 18 percent of Ukrainians in Germany were in work in January 2024, which is one of the lowest rates in Europe. By comparison, Poland, for example, has 65 percent of its Ukrainian refugee population in the workplace.

Scholz himself stated during his speech in Potsdam that Germany needs these Ukrainians to overcome the labor shortage – a shortage that is also not filled by the Third World immigrants, who at the same time continue to pour into the country.

The German the chancellor said that although some Ukrainians are working, there are “a few hundred thousand more who are urgently needed in the labor market.

There are a number of theories as to why Ukrainians find it so difficult to integrate into the German labor market. First, Germany's unemployment benefit system continues to discourage a range of groups from entering work, as it is often more profitable to remain unemployed. Some of these groups receive unemployment benefits while working illegally.

According to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, one of the main obstacles for Ukrainians is bureaucratic problems and difficulties in meeting qualifications. Although some Ukrainians are fluent in German, many still struggle with the language, which is a major obstacle for some employers.

Like many other groups who come to Germany for “temporary escape”, many Ukrainians do not want to go back home. Almost half of Ukrainians say in opinion polls that they want to stay in the country permanently.

At the same time, Ukraine is looking for new ways to force men back into the country to be deployed on the front lines, where it is becoming scarce, and it seems as if Poland will be helpful in that regard. It is unclear whether Germany will take similar measures, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may apply renewed pressure on EU countries if the war situation continues to worsen over the summer.