Court of Auditors: Half of Ukraine refugees drop out of integration course without success
In its report, the Court of Auditors refers to figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). According to these figures, almost 450,000 Ukrainians have been admitted to an integration course since the start of the war in February 2022, with around 198,000 of them being allocated a place. "More than half of the Ukrainian war refugees completed the integration course unsuccessfully," the Court of Auditors' report continues.
By the end of September 2023, around 135,000 Ukrainians had completed their integration course - 61,266 or 46% of them successfully. They achieved level B1 in the German test and passed the "Living in Germany" test. Of the 56,750 who failed, most failed the language test. According to the report, 16,546 Ukrainians dropped out of their courses without taking the test.
The success rate of 46 percent is "sobering and cannot be satisfactory", write the auditors of the Federal Audit Office. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and the BAMF should ensure rapid access to integration courses, especially for Ukrainian refugees. However, the Court of Auditors called on the two authorities to investigate "how they can contribute to increasing the proportion of successful participation and reducing the proportion of drop-outs".
"The vast majority - around 90 percent - of Ukrainian test participants achieve level B1 or the lower A2 level in the language test," explained a BAMF spokesperson in response to the Court of Auditors' report. They achieved this "despite refugee-related influencing factors such as unclear intentions to stay or traumatization". The Federal Audit Office called the A2 result pleasing and criticized that it did not meet the legal goal of B1, the spokesperson added.
However, level B1 is "a deliberately ambitious target". Even if the statutory B1 course target was not formally achieved with an A2 qualification, "the learning progress is considerable and a good basis for further integration".
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The Court of Auditors cited data from BAMF, indicating that out of the approximately 448,000 Ukrainian refugees who enrolled in an integration course since February 2022, only approximately 198,000 began the course. The auditors noted that more than half of these refugees failed to complete the course successfully. Tragically, around 16,546 Ukrainian refugees abandoned their integration courses without even taking the required tests.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior and BAMF were criticized by the Court of Auditors for not taking swift action to ensure Ukrainian refugees have easy access to integration courses. The auditors urged these authorities to brainstorm strategies to boost the percentage of successful course completions while simultaneously reducing the percentage of dropouts.
BAMF spokespersons explained that although most Ukrainian refugees scored an A2 level in the language test, which is below the B1 target set by law, they were still pleased with this achievement. The majority of Ukrainian test-takers managed to reach the A2 or B1 levels despite facing challenges related to their refugee status, such as uncertain intentions to stay and traumatic experiences.
Despite failing to meet the B1 target lawfully, BAMF saw the substantial learning progress achieved by these refugees as a promising foundation for future integration.
The outlook for immigrant integration in Germany was further discussed in several additional articles, focusing on issues such as changes in immigration policies, maritime attacks, Houthi rebel activities, and coalitions formed to combat these threats.
Source: www.stern.de
