Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s conflict in their nation have the right to dwell and work in the EU for up to three years.
This episode of Real Economy takes a have a look at the difficulties Ukrainians might face making an attempt to find a job and asks: what does this inflow of refugees imply for Europe’s workforce and financial system?
Real Economy travels to Austria to hear the tales of two Ukrainian girls, lately arrived with their youngsters. Plus we ask the head of Europe’s Public Employment Services Network, Johannes Kopf, what the EU is doing to assist Ukrainians find work.
Opportunities in the tourism trade
Over 40,000 Ukrainian refugees are staying in Austria with their youngsters. A short lived residence allow permits them to dwell and work in the nation.
Natalia has settled in the Carinthia area in the south of the nation, identified for its mountains and lakes. Back in Ukraine, she was a beautician. When she arrived at a native refugee centre, resort managers supplied her lodging and a job.
“I really like the work here,” she says. “We signed a contract until September, then I will look at how the situation develops in Ukraine.”
The tourism trade in Austria is booming and since 2019 the variety of job vacancies in the hospitality sector has doubled, with many employers unable to find employees.
For supervisor Alexandra Tiefenbacher, providing accessible rooms and vacant positions to Ukrainian refugees for the summer season season was an apparent alternative.
“There are now around 60 to 70 living here,” she says. “And 29 of them work for us in various departments: the kitchen, the restaurant, in housekeeping, building services, childcare. It’s going pretty well. Of course there’s a language barrier, but we can handle it.”
Natalia speaks a little English, which allows her to talk with colleagues. But juggling her job commitments and look after her 5-yr-outdated daughter is a problem.
“It’s difficult,” she says. “There’s a children’s playroom here, but it closes at 4.30 pm. If I have a shift that finishes at 11 in the evening, then I still need to get someone to babysit.”
Since the starting of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine greater than 7 million Ukrainians have fled their nation, though an estimated 2 million have returned dwelling. Most are girls and youngsters.
They can face numerous difficulties in discovering employment, in explicit needing to care for youngsters and find childcare or faculty locations. They could also be affected by extreme trauma. Newly arrived Ukrainians can not all the time converse the language of their new nation and their {qualifications} will not be not recognised.
Helping Ukrainians entry jobs
To assist , the EU is offering language programs and coaching in addition to Ukrainian-language pointers on how to entry the job market.
The European Commission is serving to EU employers perceive and recognise Ukrainian {qualifications} and has translated Europass , the place customers create a CV to be used throughout Europe, into Ukrainian.
It has additionally translated the EU Skills Profile Tool into Ukrainian. The software helps map the expertise, {qualifications} and work expertise of refugees, migrants and residents of non-EU international locations who’re staying in the EU.
The European Commission is additionally launching an ‘EU Talent Pool’ to match Ukrainian refugee expertise with job vacancies.
Barriers in different sectors
In Austria, different sectors like well being and IT lack certified individuals. But though half the Ukrainian refugees registered in the nation have a college diploma, rapid entry to these positions is difficult.
Ganna Zhygun, a mom of three and a German trainer from Ukraine has lately arrived in Vienna.
“The most important thing for me was finding school places for my three children,” she says. “Now I’ve found that, I’m looking for a job.”
Ganna would love to work as a German trainer serving to different refugees who do not converse the language, but her diploma is not recognised in Austria.
“My educational documents have to be translated, legally acknowledged and recognised,” she explains. “It’s a problem, it takes a long time.”
Staff at a job centre arrange to assist refugees in Vienna are serving to Ganna with this course of.
“We accompany them to appointments,” says Marjana Celebi, an advisor at the job centre. “We translate and help where necessary. The goal is to build a large network with all the involved partners, so we can help as quickly as possible.”
In the meantime, Ganna, like different refugees registered in Austria, receives the minimal wage and medical health insurance.
The Vienna job centre is a part of Austria’s Public Employment Service (AMS.) The head of AMS, Johannes Kopf, is additionally chair of the EU’s Public Employment Service community.
He spoke to Real Economy’s Naomi Lloyd about how managing the inflow of Ukrainian refugees at the European degree is a prime precedence.
He defined how international locations have been supporting one another and sharing their experiences.
Sharing greatest apply
“The topic came up just a few days after this terrible war started,” says Kopf. “When our Polish colleagues informed the network that the first Ukrainians will show up and need help. This led to really a big wave of solidarity within the public employment services all over Europe.
“There are some states: Sweden, Germany, Austria that have gained a lot of expertise in the refugee disaster in 2015/16 and after. For occasion, organising the means of the recognition of expertise or how to organise particular person ability-mappings in their mom tongue.”
He explained that the refugees arriving now have particular needs, that differ to previous refugee crises.
“Right now, most of the individuals who come, are girls with babies, and so they have completely different wants, in fact. The most essential is there is a want for childcare. Austria has to organise sufficient locations in faculties, in kindergarten and so forth. And the subsequent step then is getting into the labour market.”
The European Network of Public Employment Servicesplays a key role in matching the skills of newly arrived Ukrainians with the needs of the labour market and has publicly expressed its solidarity with Ukrainians and its commitment to supporting those fleeing the war
How can Europe meet the challenge of successfully integrating Ukrainian refugees?
Real Economy put the question to Sandra Leitner, a specialist in migratory movements for the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies.
“If it’s solely about labour market integration, if we issue out the cultural facet, political backlash, we learnt a lot I feel from earlier migration waves in phrases of what actually is essential to clean the transition into the labour market,” Leitner says.
“And that’s: language, training, recognition of {qualifications}. With all these parts in place, I feel anybody could be welcome.”
For Johannes Kopf, helping Ukrainians integrate is first and foremost about solidarity with the refugees.
When asked how the new arrivals from Ukraine could help with skills and labour shortages in the EU, he replied:
“Of course, there are vacancies and corporations that basically are looking out exhausting for expert employees and now have the hope of discovering, as an example, I.T. consultants from Ukraine. Of course.
But I do not actually like to combine asylum or refugee subjects with labour market wants. Yes, it’s higher to combine all of those individuals than to simply pay them social advantages. But first, and this is the most essential, it’s a humanitarian query.”