By Ute Kaiser
Language is a key to integration – and so is work. One district in Thuringia requires adult asylum seekers to work for 80 cents an hour: cleaning their accommodation, at the building authority or at an association such as the Tafel. Anyone who refuses to do this work without good reason can have up to half of their asylum seeker benefits cut. This would also be possible in Baden-Württemberg. But the district of Tübingen is taking a different approach. tuenews INTERNATIONAL spoke to District Administrator Joachim Walter about this.
Since August, there has been a new “Refugees and Integration” department in the Tübingen district office. One of the department‘s priorities is to place asylum seekers in the primary labor market as quickly as possible without bureaucracy so that they can learn German, get to know people, be employed, earn their own money and thus relieve the social security system, according to Walter.
New head with plenty of experience
The new head of department, Sven Jäger, brings experience from Reutlingen. There, he founded an alliance for work with the job center, the Chamber of Crafts, Diakonie and trade unions. Jäger has, for example, introduced internships in companies as well as job exchanges for refugees and training in geriatric care, which was combined with a language course.
Communication plays a major role at work. The district administrator demonstrated this with an example. He wanted to talk to a cleaning lady in his office. She spoke neither German nor English. Walter doesn‘t speak Turkish. They used “hands and feet” to help. “She now knows the word Aktenvernichter [shredder],” says Walter. It‘s an important term in her workplace.
Intensive cooperation with the job center
The new department has 57 employees, including administrative specialists, social workers and former refugees. The educational specialists are initially tasked with finding out what professional experience the individual refugees have and what they can do. After a short language course, the search for a potential employer will begin – not in competition with, but “in intensive cooperation” with the job center, says Walter.
“We approach municipalities and companies and tell them that we have a woman or a man who is a perfect fit for your company,” says the district administrator. There are now companies that provide new employees with targeted training, including language training, because they cannot easily find someone on the job market. Walter cited a scaffolding company, Tübingen University Hospital and its service organization UDO as examples. It is important “to make the companies understand that someone does not speak the language perfectly, but has basic skills”.
A win-win situation for everyone
The current economic development does not make integration into the labor market any easier. However, according to the district administrator, there is “still a relatively high demand for workers – especially in unskilled occupations”. They offer the opportunity to gain language qualifications. He mentioned the catering and care sectors, for example in food service.
“We have opportunities, we just have to look for them specifically – and we want to do that early on,” said the district administrator. Permanent employment not only offers refugees a daily structure. If they work, it also ensures acceptance among the population. “It‘s a win-win situation for everyone,” says Walter.
tun24082703
Landrat Joachim Walter (CDU) des Landkreises Tübingen im Interview mit tünews INTERNATIONAL. Foto: tuenews INTERNATIONAL / Mostafa Elyasian.
002606
