Nuremberg/Berlin (dpa -AFX) – According to Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD), more than 300,000 of the Ukrainians who fled to Germany have started work in Germany. In February, 256,000 of them were subject to social security contributions, 51,000 of them had mini jobs. Heil described the integration of the refugees as “special success”.
In April 2025, despite the difficult economic situation, around 25 percent more unemployed refugees from Ukraine had started employment, training or independence than in the same month of the previous year. The refugees are largely women and children.
Nahles: No subsequent change of legal area
The CEO of the Federal Employment Agency, Andrea Nahles, spoke out against treating the Ukraine refugees again according to the Asylum seekers’ Performance Act. Corresponding suggestions were made during the coalition negotiations. A subsequent legal area change away from the citizen benefit and towards the Asylum Seekers Benefit Act does not save any money, but would trigger considerable bureaucracy in the job centers, said Nahles. On the other hand, she considers a legal area change for newcomers to be implemented without any problems if it were intended by politics.
There have been a dispute for the social policy treatment of Ukraine refugees. In mid -2022, the Federal Government decided to treat the refugees – unlike asylum seekers – according to the regulations of the Social Code II, i.e. to grant them citizen benefit. The main reason was that in this case many advisory and training offers from a single source could be handled through the job centers.
Criticism from the Union
Above all, the Union had criticized this change, many politicians from the CDU and CSU come to change this again. The financial difference between the citizens’ allowance and the references from the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act for a single adult is around 150 euros./dm/dp/jha