Conservative call for unemployed Ukrainians to leave Germany sparks backlash
Deutsche Welle writes that a conservative German politician wants unemployed Ukrainians to leave Germany. It adds that Monday's press has thoroughly criticised this proposal.
“Over two years since the war began, the principle must apply: take up employment in Germany or return to the safe areas of western Ukraine,” said the leader of the CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, quoted by dw.com in the newspaper "Bild am Sonntag".
The daily "Koelner-Stadt-Anzeiger" wrote that this proposal "is poison for any objective debate on the integration of Ukrainian refugees into the labour market". "The CSU politician gives the impression that Ukrainians who have sought refuge here since 2022 are lazy and unwilling to work. The reality is more complicated," it stated.
"Poisoning the discourse"
"Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung" describes the matter in a similar tone. According to its report, Dobrindt "fuels the debate". "Like politicians from other parties, he knows only one goal: the number of incoming people must be reduced. However, focusing on this limits the perspective," it commented.
A columnist for the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung believes that the CSU politician's statement aims "to fish for voters who believe that there has been enough solidarity." He also states that such a position "poisons the discourse."
"It was a political will". The issue of Ukrainian women working in Germany
"It turns people who fled death and the terror of war into a problem to be dealt with for economic reasons. In this way, it dehumanises those who fled and relativises the suffering in Ukraine. Ultimately, only the extremes gain from this. And Putin," the article noted.
"Suedkurier" states that Dobrindt's demands fuel sentiments at the expense of Ukrainian women, who "work less often in Germany compared to other European countries". However, this does not mean that they do not want to work. "It was a political will not to place these women in cleaning jobs, but to enable them to integrate by providing them with higher quality employment. But this takes time because, for example, the German language cannot be learned overnight," wrote the newspaper.
