.... Most of the migrants come from countries where schooling lasts years less than in Germany, said Karl Brenke, a labor and migration expert at the German Institute for Economic Research. Qualifications are difficult to compare. Already, there are 14 people competing for a basic unskilled job, Mr. Brenke said.
He provided figures showing that the number of employable people who are jobless and living on welfare had swelled to 280,000 in December from 116,000 in early 2011. Half are Syrians.
Mr. Brenke said he saw a danger that migrants could remain unemployed for years. Even Mr. Weise admits that employment could prove tough. Seventy percent of asylum applicants in 2015, he said, were under 30. Ten percent could find work within a year, and 50 percent within five years.
Even without accommodating the North Africans, he said, it is already clear that “the refugees are not the work force that the German economy needs.” [NYTimes.com] Read more
