Politicians from across the political spectrum have criticised the generous welfare benefits available to Ukrainian refugees, which are disincentivizing many from joining the labour market…
Only a fraction of the estimated 700,000 Ukrainian refugees of working age have found employment following their arrival in Germany, a report from German newspaper Der Spiegel has revealed.
According to the report, just 19 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Germany have found work with the rest currently living off the country’s welfare state.
Several politicians from across the political spectrum expressed their concern about the sustainability of providing ongoing support.
Matthias Jendricke, chairman of the Nordhausen district council in Thuringia, described the situation as “disappointing.”
A member of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD), Jendricke said he thought it would have been easier to integrate Ukrainians into the labor market than other refugees.
In the weeks following the Russian attack, he even bussed Ukrainian refugees from Berlin to his district as the county was in urgent need of labor.
“Things went completely wrong”, he explained, revealing that only a fraction of the refugees were interested in joining the labor market.
Joachim Walter, a member of the CDU opposition and county council president in the Tübingen district of Baden-Württemberg, held a similar view.
“The willingness of Ukrainian refugees to work has been significantly reduced because of the aid,” he claimed.
He accused the federal government of being too generous in relation to the social benefits on offer for Ukrainian refugees, claiming that “high public payments” do not “encourage people to work here.”
