Should Ukrainians who live on citizen’s income instead of working be deported from Germany? The head of the CSU regional group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, is demanding exactly that. He wants to make taking up work a condition for the right to remain. The CSU MP is going one step further than other Union politicians who criticize the low employment rate of Ukrainian war refugees. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is demanding that citizen’s income for Ukrainians be stopped and that they be placed under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act so that all those seeking protection in Germany are treated equally. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) recently warned that Germany should not “reward” able-bodied men with citizen’s income if they shirk their duty at the front.
Dobrindt is now going even further. “More than two years after the start of the war, the principle must apply: take up work in Germany or return to safe areas of western Ukraine.” Germany must react to the fact that the citizen’s allowance is setting the wrong incentives and the number of adult, employable Ukrainian refugees who are in work subject to social insurance contributions is much lower in Germany than in our neighboring countries, Dobrindt told WELT.
By taking in over a million war refugees, the Federal Republic has fulfilled its humanitarian obligation and will continue to do so in the future. But the significantly higher employment rates of Ukrainians in other countries of the European Union (EU) clearly show: “The citizen’s allowance has become a brake on work, it keeps too many people from Ukraine on welfare.” Dobrindt is therefore calling for stronger cooperation obligations for taking up work. “There must be an offer of work, and this must be part of an integration effort. At the same time, we want the Ukrainian government to create the conditions for Ukrainian refugees to be able to return to safe areas of western Ukraine.”
These demands have been sharply criticized by the SPD and the Greens. “It is a historic mistake if the CDU and CSU consider a cheap campaign more important than a compass for peace and freedom on one of the big issues of our time,” said the Greens’ deputy parliamentary group leader, Andreas Audretsch, to WELT. “Mr. Dobrindt is stirring up prejudices against people from Ukraine, and in doing so he is doing Moscow’s business in Germany. Putin is happy.”
The federal government also wants to get people from Ukraine into work quickly and has therefore turned on the job boost. “But politics against work, it doesn’t get more absurd than that.” If the CSU wants to send women and children to a war zone, the “C” in the party name is increasingly becoming a farce. In addition, the municipalities would face huge bureaucratic burdens and high costs if the system were to be changed from citizen’s income to asylum benefits. “That would massively worsen the situation on the ground.”
The SPD’s first parliamentary secretary, Katja Mast, calls Dobrindt’s demand “unbelievable, populist and unchristian”. The party has not shown any ideas other than cuts that would enable refugees to find work more quickly. “Playing people who are already doing badly off against each other is an appeal to base instincts.”
When asked by WELT, neither the FDP nor the CDU wanted to comment on the debate.
Sahra Wagenknecht, on the other hand, sees the criticism of the Union as at least partially acceptable. The fact that more than 80 percent of Ukrainians work in Denmark, while in this country it is only a quarter, is rightly upsetting citizens, says the chairwoman of the alliance, Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).
Wagenknecht continued: “Anyone who makes use of our protection can also be expected to contribute their own work to minimising the costs.” But another question is crucial for Wagenknecht, namely that of war and peace. “As soon as the guns fall silent, people should of course return to their homeland.” Freezing the war on the current front line as a starting point for peace negotiations would be a realistic option, says the BSW party leader. But as long as the Ukrainian president, with the backing of the German government, insists on a complete withdrawal of Russian troops as a prerequisite for peace talks, the war will continue. “To prolong the deaths through ever more arms deliveries and unrealistic preconditions for peace talks and then send people back to sacrifice their lives in a senseless proxy war is the height of cynicism,” said Wagenknecht.
Meanwhile, the AfD has also accused the Union of practicing “pure populism”. According to MP Norbert Kleinwächter, the party believes it is urgently necessary to “separate the social system from asylum and make it inaccessible to refugees.” The parliamentarian accuses the Union faction of having repeatedly spoken out in favor of precisely the directive that is now the legal basis for the influx of Ukrainians. “According to the Geneva Refugee Convention, refugees must flee to the nearest safe area. If western Ukraine is safe, all Ukrainian war refugees should actually be sent back,” said Kleinwächter. Refugees should therefore be cared for as close to home as possible. “But the Union has so far argued the opposite.” In truth, Dobrindt is primarily concerned with sending the men to the front. “Cannon fodder instead of citizens’ income: that is a truly inhumane position.”
The Left Party group in the Bundestag warns against a “competition to outdo each other” in how more people can be deported, more quickly and more effectively. Left Party MP Clara Bünger calls the fact that the refugees from Ukraine did not fall under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act “an achievement”. This advantage should not be reversed now, she warned. “Unfortunately, there are signs that solidarity with the Ukrainian refugees is now to be ended, although there are no signs that the war is over,” said Bünger.
The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, has also criticized calls by Union politicians to cut the citizen’s allowance. “That is wrong, that is pure populism,” he said in an interview with WELT TV. Germany can of course consider whether to adjust the system. “But I don’t think that’s right to start a smear campaign against Ukrainians, who are supposedly all lazy and cowardly.” Meanwhile, Ukraine needs soldiers on the front lines, while able-bodied men live in Germany. “The worst thing now would be to drive a division in society and to differentiate between those who are patriotic and those who are generally labeled as deserters.” In Ukraine, he said, the German discussion is incomprehensible. Ukrainians did not flee for the citizen’s allowance, “but because they were afraid.”
The debate about the citizen’s allowance for Ukrainians has recently become significantly more heated. Even though Ukrainian refugees are immediately entitled to citizen’s allowance, they are only entitled to it, as usual, if they have no or only a small income. And Ukrainians are allowed to work immediately after entering the country, but compared to other EU countries, refugees living in Germany rarely do so.
According to the latest figures from the Institute for Labor Market Research (IAB), around 27 percent of Ukrainians were employed in the first quarter, and the rate increases with the length of stay, according to the IAB. The relatively low rate is due to a lack of language skills and information, says Yuliya Kosyakova from the IAB. After the imminent end of the language courses, there will be an increased transition into the labor market, according to her forecast.
