Berlin, Germany
Reuters
Of the more than one million Ukrainian refugees who came to Germany to escape the war, 44 per cent would like to stay in the country, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
This was higher than the 39 per cent of Ukrainian refugees who said they were planning to stay in a previous survey published in late summer 2022.
People sit at the registration as they arrive at the accommodation centre for refugees from Ukraine, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at the former Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, on 17th May, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Michele Tantussi
Of those polled in the new survey, 18 per cent had found a job, up only slightly from 17 per cent in late summer 2022.
The reason given for this was high participation in integration and language courses, intended to boost employability. Three-quarters of the refugees were taking German courses or had already finished them.
“Germany is investing in a sustainable integration of these refugees in the labour market,” Yuliya Kosyakova of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) said in the presentation of the survey.
Finding a job is more challenging for women with children, the survey showed. Half of the Ukrainian women who came to Germany as refugees after Russia’s invasion of the country in early 2022 have at least one child.
Only three per cent of the women with small children are working, mostly because the majority of them do not have a partner in Germany. Meanwhile 23 per cent of the men with small children are working, because they generally have a partner with them.
A sufficiently large supply of childcare places is important, said Andreas Ette, head of the international migration research group at the federal institute for population research, “for parents to be able to attend language courses and be employed and for children to learn the language, have a structured everyday life and make friends.”
The survey, which includes the responses of 7,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Germany, is a joint effort of the DIW Berlin institute, the IAB, the ministry for migration and refugees as well as the federal institute for population research.
