Sueddeutsche.de reports today, August 11, 2016 that there are some 5,200 refugees seeking jobs in Munich registered at the Agentur fur Arbeit (Job Agency) at the moment. The number could rise by up to 9,000 by the end of the year, as more asylum-seekers get all their papers together.

At the same time, companies in Munich are employing very few job seeking refugees. In another article, dated August 9, the same newspaper reports that Siemens has only made 110 job training places available to refugees. Of those 110, only ten openings are for jobs located in the Bavarian capital. Siemens employs some 114,000 people in Germany alone, the newspaper reports further.

110 openings are better than none at all, but unless something changes very soon, Munich will be in even bigger problems regarding the employment of asylum-seekers, as every refugee who’s been in the country for longer than three months is allowed to seek employment. Companies in Munich and throughout Germany will have to do more.

It is of course more complicated to train and employ someone without a European university degree, with very little knowledge of German or English and unfamiliar with European company structures. Companies are going to have to adapt to that, as many people coming from Damascus won’t be able to show a recommendation letter from the previous employer. In the long term, it is for the benefit of the whole German and European society, including the companies, to integrate those people, the sooner - the better.