How welcome are foreign skilled workers in Germany?
A personal retrospective after 10 years of life in the country of Goethe, Einstein, and Mercedes-Benz – Essay by Olga Aktas
Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Olga Aktas and that already tells you I have a so-called migration background. My first name is Russian, my last name is Turkish, and my ideas and values are most definitely German. For immigrants, such a mixture of cultural and linguistic circumstances is not uncommon.
Today, I will take you on a journey through the last ten years of life in my new home. Our first stop is Leipzig, or as the Saxons say: LEIPZSCH. It was here that I learned two very important things about Germany. First, the German I learned at school does not have much to do with the German spoken in Saxony. Second, the realisation that to get anywhere in Germany requires filling in a form or getting an appointment at some government office.
As a new arrival, there were many things I had to take care of in a short amount of time: Find and register a flat, get health insurance, open a bank account, find a GP, and more. Imagine coming to a country with rudimentary language skills and the first thing you encounter is the monster that is German officialese. To be able to tackle the monster, you must learn how to make many appointments in a limited amount of time, while it throws words like Nebenkostenabrechnung, Wohnungsgeberbestätigung or Krankenversicherungsbeiträge at you. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there are always new puzzles to solve. Take the following example: I have to pay a fee at the citizen’s registration office to register a flat using an EU bank card, but I can only get one if I open a bank account using my registration certificate as proof of address. You can only lose ...
Our next stop is Berlin. I have been living and working here for many years. Are you too under the impression that Berlin is a paradise for foreign skilled workers? Believe me when I say that appearances are deceiving. This city is a tough nut to crack, especially for families with children. Never mind the housing situation, which is tense in most large cities, but the lack of day-care places is a double challenge for skilled workers from outside of Germany.
To have equal opportunities, children depend on learning German as early as kindergarten because they will have huge deficits when they start going to school otherwise. In Germany, language is the key to integration and success. After completing my master's degree in media studies, this insight prompted me to pursue another master's degree in German as a foreign and professional language. I wanted to understand how to teach German to learners more effectively.
Over time, and through word of mouth, more and more Russian speakers arriving in Berlin found me and they all asked the same questions: How do I find an apartment? What do I do if I get sick? Can you help me fill out the application form for after-school care? It was through this that I had the idea to bring together language and integration in a digital tool at university and founded the company Open Deutsch.
I think that Germany still has a long way to go when it comes to Willkommenskultur, its welcoming culture. There have been some improvements to quick admission and language promotion among refugees, for example, but working immigrants are still more or less on their own. From where I stand, German employers need to understand that they are not attracting skilled workers, but people with needs and worries, and that they, too, are responsible for their well-being. At the same time, the newcomers must learn the language and be open to immersing themselves in German culture.
Olga Aktas is the founder and CEO of Open Deutsch, a platform for language, integration, and fair placement of international professionals.