Berlin The war in Ukraine also led to a turning point in European refugee policy. The EU Commission proposed on Wednesday to activate the “mass influx” directive for the first time, which had already been passed in 2001 as a reaction to the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
If the EU interior ministers agree on Thursday, Ukrainians who have fled to EU countries will receive temporary residence status apart from the asylum procedure and access to minimum social standards. In addition, the Brussels authorities have now published non-binding recommendations on how border formalities for refugees can be reduced to the bare minimum.
“By accepting refugees from Ukraine as part of a simplified procedure, the European Union can show the greatest possible solidarity,” says Petra Bendel, Chairwoman of the Advisory Council on Integration and Migration (SVR). According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, around 870,000 Ukrainians have already left their homeland – and the number is increasing exponentially.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, a good 5,300 refugees from Ukraine have been registered in Germany so far. Since there are no border controls in the EU, there could be more. Ukrainians who have a biometric passport can enter neighboring countries without a visa and travel from there to other EU countries.
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According to the directive, they should now receive limited protection in EU countries for an initial period of one year. However, the duration can be extended twice by six months, i.e. a further year in total. According to the EU Commission, in addition to the right to accommodation, social benefits or medical care, refugees also have access to the labor market or the education system.
Read more about the Ukraine war and the consequences here:
There had never been a majority among the EU member states for the application of the directive, for example as a result of the Syrian war – also because there was disagreement about the distribution of the refugees and the costs within the Union. This is also not regulated by the directive, says Constance asylum law expert and vice-chairman of the SVR, Daniel Thym.
Federal government: “Europe stands together”
“However, the great solidarity and willingness to accept people that has been evident in the past few days makes us optimistic that there is now agreement that all countries will take part in the admission process,” reports Thym. The neighboring Ukrainian countries of Poland and Hungary, which had been very reluctant to take in refugees from Syria or Afghanistan, were immediately willing to take in refugees from the neighboring country.
The EU Commission wants to set up a new “solidarity platform” that will provide information on the willingness and capacities of the member states to take in refugees. All EU states are ready to take in those seeking protection, said a spokeswoman for the federal government. “Europe stands together.”
In Berlin, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Labor were still discussing the specific implementation of the directive on Wednesday. According to Section 24 of the Residence Act, refugees who are granted temporary protection by Germany are allocated to the federal states according to the Königstein key, where they are assigned a place of residence. According to Thym, while the EU directive clearly provides for a right to access the labor market, the Residence Act only states that refugees with temporary protection can be allowed to work.
The possibility of access to the labor market depends, for example, on whether refugees receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act or under the Social Security Code II, i.e. the basic security for job seekers. Government circles said on Wednesday that efforts were being made to give Ukrainians uncomplicated access to the labor market.
From an integration point of view, this would certainly be the better choice, says the head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Detlef Scheele, when presenting the current labor market data. The priority at the moment is the humanitarian accommodation of the refugees, mainly women and children.
>> Read here: Municipalities expect “significantly more” than 100,000 Ukraine refugees in Germany
It is “completely inappropriate” to think about what the flight movement could possibly mean for the situation of skilled workers in Germany. According to data from the BA, in the middle of last year almost 54,000 Ukrainians were in employment subject to social security contributions in Germany, and almost 12,000 in mini-jobs.
The idea of ”changing lanes” could become a reality in the case of the Ukraine refugees
Business associations such as the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) have already emphasized the need to support refugees with their integration into the labor market. Asylum lawyer Thym also sees a chance that the idea of a “change of lanes” – from immigration for humanitarian reasons into the labor market – could work well in the case of the Ukrainian refugees.
According to a study by the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB), the migrants from Ukraine who had previously immigrated to the country had above-average qualifications, with around half of them having academic degrees. At the same time, the proportion of women was exceptionally high at around 57 percent.
So far, the refugee movement has been concentrated on the countries directly bordering Ukraine and the surrounding area. Almost 454,000 people have arrived in Poland, according to the UNHCR. More than 116,300 people reached Hungary, more than 79,300 the non-EU country Moldova and 67,000 Slovakia. According to government figures, the Czech Republic had 20,000 refugees and Romania 120,000, half of whom had traveled to other Western countries.
As reported by Deutsche Bahn, refugees from Ukraine can now use around 40 international long-distance trains to travel to Germany from Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic. This means that journeys via the three countries mentioned to Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg and Munich are now possible without a ticket.
More: “Patrioticism masks my fear” – Thousands of Ukrainians return from Poland to fight in the war zone.