Labour Market Integration of Refugees in Germany

The political situation in Africa and in the Middle East led to a dramatic increase of refugee migration. In 2015 and 2016, more than 1.1 million refugees applied for asylum in Germany. This new dimension of refugee migration put pressure on the government to rethink integration policies and create legislative changes as labour market and social integration of refugees became major tasks. Although there had always been a certain degree of refugee migration, this group was of minor importance for the Public Employment Service. In order to analyse how the labour administration has adapted to a changing legal framework as well as to a new and highly specific group of job-seekers we draw on two studies focusing on the perspective of the street-level workers. In the first study, we conducted semi-standardised oral interviews in selected employment agencies and job centres. In the second study, we supplement these insights with findings from a large-scale standardised online-survey among street-level workers in the Public Employment Service. By this we shed light on organisational strategies and barriers to a successful labour market integration of refugees. With respect to individual constraints case workers point out that certified language skills, past work experience and the family situation including child care substantially influence job chances. By judging the focus, the availability and the quality of existing policy measures our analysis delivers important insights on the interplay of politics, administration and actors on the labour market implementing policies in the field of refugees’ labour market integration.