A new bundle of measures on migration will also accelerate access to the labour market for refugees, the government confirmed on Wednesday after giving in to increasing pressure from regions and experts to integrate migrants into the labour force.
Leaders of the government coalition parties have now agreed on several legislative proposals to mitigate both issues further, FAZ reported.
As part of the package, applicants who stay in preliminary collective accommodation will be allowed to enter employment six months after arriving in Germany – rather than nine, as is the case now.
“We have agreed to make it easier for refugees to work in Germany,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) told reporters on Wednesday.
Germany has been facing an increase in asylum applications this year and severe labour shortages.
The FDP, a junior partner in the coalition government, was previously sceptical of the move. A blanket permission to work for asylum applicants would be “a magnet for migration”, Christian Lindner, FDP leader and finance minister, told t-online last week.
Lindner’s concerns are reportedly being addressed by excluding applicants from so-called “safe countries of origin,” which have a low chance of being recognised as refugees from simplifications.
Pressure from the regions
Pressure to allow for easier access had been mounting as regional governments and municipalities, as well as experts, called on the government to act in the face of labour shortages in Germany.
“All asylum applicants should be integrated into the labour market as fast as possible,” Isolde Ries, the chair of the German delegation to the European Committee of the Regions, told Euractiv.
Given that Germany had a huge labour shortage, “it’s not like we can afford to have people sit at home twiddling their thumbs,” she said.
Experts from the Ifo Institute, the most important economic research institution in Germany, also emphasised the importance of employment for accelerated integration of migrants into German society in a paper published on Wednesday.
However, the government’s planned measures fell short of a more radical proposal by the heads of regional governments, circulated on Wednesday, which called for making communal work mandatory for asylum applicants.
Painful compromises for the Greens
Alongside improved labour market access, coalition partners want to make deporting applicants who have been denied easier.
Such changes are another bitter pill for the pro-migration Greens after the German government agreed to a compromise on a controversial EU migration deal despite Green concerns about human rights.
Ensuring the constitutionality of any measures and protection of families would be the Greens’ priority during parliamentary consultations, Britta Haßelmann, chair of the Green party group in parliament, warned on Wednesday.
In parallel, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) reaffirmed his will to collaborate with the opposition on migration as it emerged on Wednesday that he would invite Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right CDU/CSU (EPP), the largest opposition group, and two regional prime ministers for a migration summit on Friday.
(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de, additional reporting by Jonathan Packroff | Euractiv.de)
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