Katherine Pike

AP Language period 4
Mr. Phillips
December 12, 2016
Refugees in Germany
One of the most controversial topics of conversations we hear daily is
refugees and the debates as to where they should go and if they should be let into a
specific country, and Germany is one where people who are fleeing from Syria,
seeking shelter and safety. Syrias civil war is creating wave of refugees into other
countries because of the dangers that come with the war currently going on in Syria,
making it unsafe and even impossible for it to live in certain areas, forcing them to
leave their home and lives that they had been living. When there is such a surge of
population coming into countries a domino effect is created making many things come
into play when accepting new people into countries. One of the things that is part of
the domino effect is the economy and how refugees and affecting it daily. Refugees
are having and will continue to have a positive impact on Germanys economic growth
because of the growing labor market and a multitude of other things created because
of the population surge.
Germanys acceptance rate of refugees has been very high, but with it being
so high Germany has to do something about it because of the effects that it is having
on germans lives. Many types of people are a part of the population surge that is
coming in, one of those being asylum seekers. Asylum seekers are those who fled
their home country because of danger and are seeking sanctuary. With over one
million people seeking asylum every year, Germany needed to start turning them
away because of the limited amount of sanctuary (Asylum-Seekers). Along with
those seeking sanctuary/asylum, ones who are not get turned down, Even if the
conditions of asylum are met, we will send back those refugees who do not wish to
apply for asylum in Germany (Germany Turning Refugees Back). This makes it
appear that Germany is trying to follow the EUs rules, where refugees have to claim
asylum before they enter an EU nation (A DISCUSSION ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS
IN EUROPE). Paolo Gentioli, an Italian prime minister, claims The European Union
has two possibilities - either it suffers the consequences of the migrant flow or it tries
to control it. It can control it if it acts in a united way and if it recognizes rules thought

up a quarter of a century ago are no longer suitable for the flows we are seeing
today, which demonstrates why Germany would change its rules coming to letting in
refugees, as it shows they are opposed to it in the quote, Mrs Merkel had effectively
suspended the rules when she said Germany would take Syrian refugees regardless
of which EU state they entered first. Now she has pledged to reduce the number of
refugees (DISCUSSION ON..). With Germany turning away over 220,000 refugees,
they are losing the new labor sources that they could get out of the new incoming
refugees. Germanys unemployment rate has gone down, due to the gained
population of immigrants. The unemployment has gone from 5.01 million unemployed
in 2005 to 2.68 million unemployed, and the rate of unemployment is at 6.1%, the
lowest in 26 years and the highest being in 2005 with 12.1% unemployment rate
(Germany economy: Quick View - Unemployment rate stable at 6.1%). Since 2005,
there has been more refugees than ever before, and because of that the creation of
jobs were needed, causing the unemployment rate to decrease. When an area
becomes more populated, there is a need of more people working to build new
homes, growing food and other essential things needed for incoming refugees to be
able to live substantially, Supported by the influx of migrants in 2015 and firm levels
of household spending, employment has continued to expand at a solid pace this
year. There are more employment opportunities that are associated with refugees
than previously mentioned. The biggest area where employment has grown is the
area of refugee management, refugees have created a new area of jobs
unintentionally because there is such a surge of people coming into the country there
needs to be people managing them while they are trying to find shelter in Germany.
Refugees have already created an impact on Germany with the jobs that
they create, but the immigration wave will cause the European GDP (gross domestic
product) to increase (Goldstein). Refugees are only allowed to work in the informal
sector, where they do not need an education to do the job successfully. The refugees
always earn less than the citizens in the country they are working for. Even if the
refugee has better experience and an education in a certain field than a native to the
country, they are still downgraded to the job that pays less and needs no experience
to perform well in that job. In the short term, the IMF says the refugee surge is likely
to lead to a modest increase in GDP growth, due to both the extra money spent by
governments to support asylum seekers and the expansion of the labor supply, and it

will be concentrated in the main destination countries: Austria, Germany and

Sweden. (Goldstein), this quote is showing how the refugees could increase the GDP
growth, and how Germany gets the extra money because of the fact that it is a
country that is highly populated (refugees and non-refugees). The refugees who are
coming into Germany from Syria are most likely to be younger, while most people
working in Germany are of the older generation. Germany is going to need people to
replace all of the current workers who would be retiring. If the refugees could replace
them in their work they will help maintain the generous pension and benefits systems
Germans hold dear (Rietig). If the refugees could replace the current workers, it
would help maintain the current economy because there would be no drop in
employment and it would not take much to hire them, as they are already searching
for work in their new country.
Why this is a controversial topic is because nobody knows how it will turn
out, no one knows if it will work or make their economy decrease significantly, but
there are also many factors that would prevent a refugee from working in Germany.
While there are many ways that refugees can help Germanys economy,
there are also several that could impact it negatively. Small towns who are getting
surges of people coming in are struggling to find places for them to stay (Smale).
While towns are having trouble finding hospitality for the new refugees, civilians are
setting refugee shelter on fire out of anger. Economy within towns is also a struggle,
Wealthy Germany can afford to help says mayor of a town of 1,000, Volker Herzog
(Faiola). In these small towns there are people who are setting fire to the shelters
being built for refugees out of anger. The way that smaller towns have to pay for the
shelter/food and the repair for the shelters that were burnt down by civilians are
contributing to the reason why people are not wanting to let refugees into their
countries/towns (What helping refugees costs Europe).
Refugees seeking homes in different countries is becoming a growing issue
in every country, and everyone seems to have a negative view on the topic when they
should not. Refugees are helping our enemies everyday, and are doing much more
than we thought. The more evident it becomes that refugees are not wanted can
change because people do not know the good that they are doing, and while there is
bad, but not too big of issues that refugees bring with them, it overseen by the fact
that the economy is excelling because of them.

Works Cited

"A DISCUSSION ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN EUROPE." States News Service, 7

Oct. 2015. General OneFile, Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.

"Asylum-Seekers." UNHCR. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Faiola, Anthony. "Germany no longer the promised land for migrants." Washington
Post, 29 Sept. 2016. Global Issues in Context, Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.

"Germany turning refugees back." Daily Telegraph [London, England], 13 Jan. 2016,
p. 15. Global Issues in Context, Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.
Goldstein, Steve. "Here's the Real Economic Impact Refugees Make on Europe's
Economy." MarketWatch. N.p., 22 Jan. 2016. Web. 3 Dec. 2016.

"Germany economy: Quick View - Unemployment rate stable at 6.1%." Economist

Intelligence Unit: Country ViewsWire, 29 Sept. 2016. Global Issues in Context,
Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.

Rietig, Victoria. "Burden or Blessing? The Impact of Refugees on Germany's Labor Market
AICGS." AICGS. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2016.

Smale, Alison. "Another Crisis of Migration Quietly Grows." New York Times, 23 Apr.
2015, p. A1(L). Global Issues in Context, Accessed 3 Dec. 2016
"What helping refugees costs Germany." Daily News Egypt [Egypt], 4 Sept. 2015.
Global Issues in Context, Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.