New calls to reform 20-year-old German integration courses

A representative of Germany’s Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Office) has said that integration courses for refugees and migrants should be reformed to better prepare people for the German job market.

German integration courses need reform, says BA

The Bundesagentur für Arbeit special commissioner for refugee job market integration has said that Germany must reform its current integration course system to adequately prepare people for working in the German job market.

“German integration courses were developed 20 years ago when we weren’t thinking so much about workplace integration,” Daniel Terzenbach told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, “We should better align these courses with the requirements of the job market.”

Terzenbach added that it was necessary to teach people who were used to other work cultures about how vocational training and the job market operate in Germany.

Many non-EU nationals are either entitled or obliged to attend an integration course upon arrival in Germany. Most integration courses begin with a German language course, which equips migrants with everyday language skills.

As of 2024, Germany is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) aligned country with the second highest number of migrants, after the US.

Germany will slash integration course budget by half in 2025

As Terzenbach calls for reform, the German government plans to slash funding for integration courses from 1,1 billion euros to 500 million euros in its 2025 budget.

This is despite the German government's simultaneous efforts to entice skilled migrants to Germany to plug a record-high worker shortage.

A report by the online magazine Migazin suggests that Terzensbach’s proposal may be part of plans to reconfigure integration courses to fit the new, significantly smaller budget, which experts predict will make it harder for newcomers to integrate into the German job market.

While a 2024 study by the OECD praised Germany for its overall efforts to help migrants integrate, the organisation concluded that the country’s integration policies were falling short when it came to education. That was before budget cuts were announced.

Two-thirds of migrants to Germany have developed good skills informally at language classes or integration courses within the first five years of living in the federal republic, but these qualifications drop off sharply among migrants with little to no formal education.

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