CDU politician: No immediate money for Ukraine refugees

Migration - CDU politician: No immediate money for Ukraine refugees

Alexander Throm, the spokesperson for domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, has spoken out in favor of ending the payment of citizens' allowance to newly arrived refugees from Ukraine.

"The fact that the war refugees from Ukraine are all receiving citizen's allowance immediately was well-intentioned by all parties involved when it was decided," the CDU member of parliament told the German Press Agency. However, the decision proved to be counterproductive as far as the willingness to take up work was concerned.

The demand

Throm called for "a different procedure to be followed in future, so that Ukrainian refugees, who do not have to apply for asylum, are first provided for in accordance with the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act". The German Association of Counties had already made this demand in October - before the debate about the budget and possible savings triggered by a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court had begun.

However, the CDU politician reiterated that the EU's so-called mass influx directive, which makes a request for protection from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees superfluous, still applies to the admission of people from Ukraine to the European Union. The EU should also adhere to this.

Many children and young people

After the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the war refugees from there were initially provided for in Germany in accordance with the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. Since June 1, 2022, they have been integrated into the basic income support scheme under Social Security Code II (formerly Hartz IV, now Citizen's Income) and thus receive higher benefits.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, there are currently around 1.1 million people living in Germany who have arrived from Ukraine in connection with the war. Around 350,000 of them are children and young people under the age of 18. Around two thirds of the adult refugees are women.

In November, Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) reported that 140,000 people from Ukraine had found work in Germany since the outbreak of the war. "That's a start, but it's not nearly enough for me," said Heil. In total, there are 400,000 refugees who have completed or are about to complete their integration course and are then available for the job market - around half of them from Ukraine.