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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Source: www.stern.de
