Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, from the conservative union party CSU, told the tabloid newspaper Bild am Sonntag on February 22: "Migrants who come to Germany should be working and it should happen quickly."

Dobrindt was announcing what he called the "faster route to work" plan ("Sofort-in-Arbeit-Plan”).

According to a report by Germany’s public broadcast news show Tagesschau, part of the ARD network, Dobrindt believes that integration is best practiced via the world of work. "The aim is to have participating members of society through their occupations."

The plans, which have also been welcomed by the social democratic coalition partner SPD party, were part of the coalition agreement between the two parties. It is hoped, reported Tageschau, that once the plans are up and running, asylum seekers will be able and encouraged to enter the world of work within three months of their application.

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Part of European-wide new asylum systems

The legal basis for the new plans should come into force alongside the implementation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) last year, confirmed the Interior Ministry. This is about to be debated in parliament, reported Germany’s other public broadcaster ZDF.

That is, even if they don’t yet have an answer to their asylum application. Tagesschau clarified that the asylum application process could go ahead independently of whether someone was working or not. But the fact that they are working will not give them a faster track to residency in Germany, underlined the authorities.

"Anyone who is refused asylum must still leave the country," confirmed a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry to ZDF. They underlined that employers also needed to take into account that a person they employed might later lose the right to work if their asylum application is refused.

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Reducing costs

Previously, authorities in Germany had put a block on people working until they had permission to stay in the country. Conversely, although the fact that someone had found employment and was potentially contributing to the system was seen not as positive but as a potential hindrance to sending them back, if their asylum claims then failed.

But, more recently, the German government has been taking steps to reduce the amount of welfare it is paying out, particularly to asylum seekers. Many politicians and economists in Germany have pointed to the fact that Ukrainian refugees, who hold special status across Europe and are actually allowed to work in Germany, were not finding employment in Germany as often as in neighboring countries like the Netherlands, where both the barriers to work and the expectation of work were in favor of employment.

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Those excluded from the new system

A spokesperson for Dobrindt told Bild, "the new rules will not change the asylum process or the results for asylum seekers." However, those who will be specifically excluded from the new rules are people who have had their asylum application rejected already, as well as anyone who refuses to cooperate with the authorities or tries to conceal their identity or tells lies about their reasons for fleeing, warned the ministry spokesperson.

Also to be excluded from the new rules are people who are staying in asylum seeker accommodation. People who come from countries listed as "safe" are forced to stay in asylum seeker accommodation. The process to check their asylum application can take up to six months at least, reported Tageschau, and they will not be allowed to work for the duration of that time.

The idea of the "safe country" list is to be able to speed up asylum application controls and send people back to countries more quickly where they are deemed not to be under threat.

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Making it work

Dobrindt’s plans are in fact not a completely new idea. In the eastern state of Thuringia for instance, the local CDU leaders in the Saale-Orla municipality have been making sure that asylum seekers contribute to the working world for a while now. In March 2024, Christian Herrgott, the General Secretary of the CDU in Thuringia and the leader (Landrat) of the Saale-Orle area in a TV interview told the Phönix channel, also part of the state broadcast network, that making work mandatory both in and outside the asylum seeking accommodation was important.

"We make sure that people in asylum seeker accommodation are not just participating in the cleaning of the communal spaces, in and outside of the asylum seeker home, but we are also looking to engage them in work for the municipality. We try and offer them simple tasks, like cleaning, cutting greenery, that they can carry out even without much knowledge of the German language or many specific skills or qualifications."

Herrgott said that the social workers who were employed in the asylum seeking accommodation centers were then working in conjunction with local councils and associations to find suitable job openings for the asylum seekers in their area.

The CDU politician admitted that the idea did take "special effort" since it wasn’t just about finding suitable work, but then transporting people to the jobs. But they found the effort worth it. At the time, they were employing 150 people who were all adults and living in special accommodation centers.

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Speeding up integration, through work

Herrgott said that the majority of the group had reacted "very positively" to the plans and wanted to participate. At the time that he gave the interview, the asylum seekers could not start work for the first three months after arrival, but Herrgott said he and the authorities in his region thought that working was an "important step towards integration." He added that their aim was not to "hold these people in these kinds of jobs forever, but to give them structure and meaning to their days and provide the first steps into the real job market."

The politician added that through the work, some would be able to begin learning German through contact with German-speaking colleagues. Herrgott added that many of the asylum seekers had told him they are keen to work, and his and his party’s aims are to make sure that people are independent of social welfare benefits as soon as is feasibly possible.

Over the last few weeks, the German government has received a fair amount of criticism over its decision to cut language and integration courses. Many critics have pointed to the fact that these courses are the key to better language skills and possible integration. The German government underlines that integration through work is an even better and faster route and that getting asylum seekers into work more quickly will only serve to strengthen overall integration.

Up until now, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, most asylum seekers have to wait at least six months before they are able to work. However, the German government has also confirmed that although the possibility of working will be made easier, work will not be made mandatory.

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