As of: February 29, 2024, 8:24 a.m
By: Franziska Schwarz
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Migrants in an initial reception center in Eisenhüttenstadt (archive image from 2021) © Jan Huebner/Imago
In Saale-Orla in Thuringia, asylum seekers are to be required to work.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is now joining the debate.
Berlin – Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil believes that compulsory work for asylum seekers makes sense in individual cases.
“It is current law that municipalities can oblige asylum seekers who live in shared accommodation to do community service,” he told the
Bild
newspaper (February 29 edition).
“In individual cases it may also make sense to employ people in collective accommodation during the sometimes long waiting period,” the SPD politician continued.
However, sustainable labor market integration will not be successful.
Heil said his goal was to get people who had found protection here into long-term work subject to social security contributions.
“That’s why I’m relying on the job turbo, with which we can intensify the support provided by the job centers, determine the skills and qualifications of the refugees and thus make concrete job offers.”
Another politician from the traffic light coalition had also promoted the “job turbo” concept: “For the refugees from Ukraine, for example, there is a job turbo,” said Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in December.
Compulsory work for asylum seekers: 80 cents an hour in Saale-Orla
In the Saale-Orla district in eastern Thuringia, asylum seekers are to be required to work four hours per day.
The basis is a corresponding regulation in the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, as a district spokesman said.
The refugees are supposed to do simple jobs for 80 cents per hour.
If they refuse, they face a monetary cut of up to 180 euros per month.
On Wednesday (February 28th) the German District Council also called for all asylum seekers to be required to work.
According to association president Reinhard Sager, “it’s not so much about the added value of the work for society, but about the signal you send.”
Paragraph five of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act states: “Those who are able to work but are not gainfully entitled to benefits and who are no longer of compulsory school age are obliged to take up a job opportunity that is made available to them.”
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Access to the labor market for asylum seekers: This is the situation
Access to the German labor market is severely restricted for newly arrived refugees.
According to the current legal situation, asylum seekers are generally only allowed to work after three months - those who have to live in a reception center and do not have a minor child are only allowed to work after nine months.
Tolerated people or refugees in a reception facility with a minor child are allowed to work after six months.
Asylum seekers from so-called safe countries of origin who submitted their asylum application after August 2015 generally have no access to the labor market.
(dpa/AFP/frs)