What can successful integration look like? An important key is to use the labor of refugees.
Daniel Terzenbach is supposed to take care of the faster integration of refugees into the labor market for the federal government. He is responsible for the regions on the board of the Federal Employment Agency. In the interview he talks about the job market.
At the suggestion of Hubertus Heil, the cabinet should appoint you as a special representative: What do you need from politicians in order to be able to do the job well?
The financial framework must be there to be able to support the refugees through qualification measures. And there must be an integration subsidy for companies that hire people who cannot carry out their jobs right from day one. We also need sufficient job-related language courses and capacity in the recognition bodies for professional qualifications. This can no longer take months, sometimes even years, as it did before. Otherwise it will be difficult to integrate into the labor market, which is both quick and sustainable.
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In addition to business and social partners, you also want to include refugee communities. What are you planning there?
My plan would be to create transparency: For example, what support options are there when starting work? We also want to use the communities as multipliers so that more people within the groups see that there is a perspective on the job market after the phase of arrival and initial language acquisition. But we also want to explain that participation is a central theme.
How do you want to reach people on social networks?
A project called “Social Streetwork” would be planned, essentially outreach social work on social media. Many women in particular are very active there and we want to reach them. The Federal Integration Commissioner, in collaboration with the Federal Employment Agency, also runs the Fem.OS project, which offers information and advice for women with a migration background. There are large groups on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. This involves questions such as childcare or health insurance.
From 2015 to 2018 you were the representative of the board of the Federal Employment Agency for “operational refugee management”. What did you learn during that time?
There are areas in which intensive advice is particularly important. For example, the topic of professional recognition: What is my educational qualification worth? We will have to continue to work on this in the coming years – as with childcare. There was already misinformation circulating for a while back then: that care costs a lot and therefore cannot be used. Something like that also happened with regard to the job centers: In individual communities it was said: Never say there that you want to have a part-time job. This would help us: You can start with a part-time job and then discuss with your employer whether it might become a position subject to social security contributions. We want to spread hope and optimism, but also make something clear.
Namely?
We want to support, but cooperation on the other hand is just as important, otherwise there can be a reduction in performance. There are also sometimes misunderstandings on this topic that are spread on social networks.
By Okan Bellikli
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