German Chancellor made his comments in an interview with weekly ‘Der Spiegel’. Scholz is focusing on migration after a pair of regional elections in which voters punished his three-party coalition
Well, to be more precise: We need a lot of people willing and able to work in elder care and certain other professions. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case for many people who fled countries like Syria. In 2021 65% of Syrians in Germany were still on welfare. link in German
Economically speaking refugees from countries like Syria cost more than they bring in. Now, that’s not a good reason to end the right to asylum - old people are even more expensive, don’t work and we’re not talking about abandoning them - and of course better policies could lead to a higher share of refugees actually working, but with current policies the economy isn’t an argument in favor of accepting refugees.
I guess that is by design. If you make it hard for refugees to work, you can use it as a argument against asylum. The stereotype of the lazy immigrant, that only came to Europe for the welfare is quite wide-spread.
It’s just simple protectionism. Banning outsiders from working helps with wages and unemployment. At least in the short term. The idea was to thwart the “steal our jobs” claim.
That said, the working bans - that get lifted when people are recognized as refugees - only explain a portion of the high unemployment and welfare rates. Besides the language issues, it should be self-evident that people who grew up in war torn countries are less likely to well educated and mentally sound than people who grew up with a reasonably effective welfare state watching over them.
Well, to be more precise: We need a lot of people willing and able to work in elder care and certain other professions. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case for many people who fled countries like Syria. In 2021 65% of Syrians in Germany were still on welfare. link in German
Economically speaking refugees from countries like Syria cost more than they bring in. Now, that’s not a good reason to end the right to asylum - old people are even more expensive, don’t work and we’re not talking about abandoning them - and of course better policies could lead to a higher share of refugees actually working, but with current policies the economy isn’t an argument in favor of accepting refugees.
I guess that is by design. If you make it hard for refugees to work, you can use it as a argument against asylum. The stereotype of the lazy immigrant, that only came to Europe for the welfare is quite wide-spread.
It’s just simple protectionism. Banning outsiders from working helps with wages and unemployment. At least in the short term. The idea was to thwart the “steal our jobs” claim.
That said, the working bans - that get lifted when people are recognized as refugees - only explain a portion of the high unemployment and welfare rates. Besides the language issues, it should be self-evident that people who grew up in war torn countries are less likely to well educated and mentally sound than people who grew up with a reasonably effective welfare state watching over them.