Obstacles, dangers and opportunities: Refugee Ukrainian women are looking for work

Obstacles, dangers and opportunities
Refugee Ukrainian women are looking for work

Since the beginning of the war, countless Ukrainian women have fled to Germany. Once here, many want to work as quickly as possible. However, integration into the labor market harbors obstacles. In addition, the lack of legal information and lack of language skills massively increase the risk of exploitation.

A Ukrainian dentist who fled to Germany is supposed to work in the practice for six months without pay. A beauty salon wants to fobb off a Ukrainian woman who has just escaped the war with 1,000 euros as a full-time employee. In order to protect refugee women from Ukraine from such exploitation and to employ them here in accordance with their often high professional qualifications, many levers have to be set in motion, experts demand.

Quite a few women want to work as quickly as possible and earn extra money despite their lack of German language skills, says social scientist Ildiko Pallmann from the minor project office for education and research. They are often not yet informed about legal issues, the labor market system or the minimum wage. “This increases the risk of going into exploitative work,” she warned. When integrating into the German labor market, the top priority must be to hire women to match their qualifications.

According to the latest information, around 600,200 Ukrainian nationals have been arrested in Germany since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on April 24. Exactly how many there are is unknown. Most of the adult war refugees are women, and many come with their children.

Recognition of professional qualifications

Yuliya Kosyakova from the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research emphasizes that the prerequisites for integration into the labor market in this country are favorable. The level of education and qualifications in Ukraine is quite high. Whether integration actually succeeds and at what speed depends on several factors.

Important: The recognition of women’s professional qualifications and experience. That is sometimes “treacherous”. For example, a lawyer with top knowledge of Ukrainian law would find it difficult to find a job in Germany, but a maths teacher would be able to start teaching relatively quickly. The fundamentally important knowledge of German is all the more important. Why? Researcher Kosyakova reports that many Ukrainian women work in “typically female jobs” such as education or healthcare. Approach and communication are key here.

The Ukrainian nurse Kateryna Nezhentseva actively helps refugees. The 44-year-old comes from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, which was badly hit by Russian attacks. She came to Neuss in North Rhine-Westphalia with her son in 2014 and has been working there for nine months in the Rhineland Clinics. “Many women want to work right away, but that’s difficult. First of all, housing and papers are still a big issue. And the German language is the problem.” She also uses social media to advise newcomers on ways to gain a foothold in healthcare. Pallmann explains that Ukrainian women gather a great deal of information via social media.

Increased risk of exploitation

She reports from her consultation: Most of them have a university degree, they are mainly teachers, business economists, doctors. Questions about work should be built into integration courses, she thinks. “So that people aren’t at their mercy.” If women first want to work below their qualifications, one should not lose sight of them in order to place them appropriately later on. And Pallmann warns: There are already examples of subcontractors in the warehousing, logistics or meat industry wanting to hire cheap workers: “Of course, they now also see potential in the refugees from Ukraine.”

Labor market expert Kosyakova advises a regionally more balanced distribution of the refugees. The general lack of day-care center space often proves to be a stumbling block for mothers to take part in integration and language courses. Nezhentseva was able to bring some relatives and friends to Germany and found accommodation for them with German families.

She points to another risk of exploitation. When she was looking for a flat for a friend, a man literally offered her on the phone: “The woman can live with me and clean and cook. And if we both like each other, maybe even more is possible.” The 44-year-old believes that such cases are common. “And the women are desperate, they have children and don’t want to stay in the collective accommodation with them. They don’t speak German and don’t dare to contact the police,” she says.

The Ukrainian women were in a dilemma, they wanted to help at home, fight, stay with their husbands, but at the same time bring their children to safety. Many of their relatives and friends continued to hold out in the contested areas. Despite all the help for the fugitive, she is plagued by feelings of guilt: “I’m safe here, I can laugh, I can see the sun. And they’re under bombardment.”

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