Around 40,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Germany in the next few days, doubling the number who entered the country last weekend. The travellers are expected to enter the country at southern Munich, where 7,200 refugees arrived today, after travelling over the Austrian border.German defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Der Spiegel that 4,000 soldiers will be available to help with the latest unprecedented influx of Syrian refugees.”They will provide a helping hand, for example to set up a refugee camp, to help with organisation, provide buses and drivers, other types of transport, medical services and equipment, anything of that kind,” a Defence Ministry spokesman told The Local. On Thursday the army said that they are already housing 14,500 refugees in 41 locations, most of whom are arriving by train via Austria. Germany’s stance on the refugees, and its insistence of applying a quota system across Europe to share migrants “fairly”, has exposed deep divisions within the EU, with most eastern European states, led by Hungary, decrying the arrival of the refugees as a threat to their demographics, religion, culture and, more crucially, their economies by way of taking up scarcely available jobs. Xenophobic claims of the refugees being unable to integrate aside, the job factor is somewhat revelatory when analyzing the divisions within Europe, as the German economy is in fact projected to benefit from the refugee influx. As the death rate of Germany remains higher than the birth rate, by 2030 it is estimated that the working population of the country would decrease by six million, leaving it with a noticeable skill shortage. Thus the influx of refugees can provide it a long-term solution to the shortage of skilled labour. The German approach of embracing refugees and making efforts to integrate them are not only humane, they also make eminent economic sense. This marriage of prudence and humanitarian idealism would see Germany, in the words of its economy minister, spread the refugees in areas that can accommodate them, set up training workshops and fast track them into employment. By enhancing their chances of employment, the German government would effectively integrate the refugee population with mainstream society and avoid creating a class of disenfranchised and resented outsiders. Companies in Germany have woken up to the potential of a labour pool boosted to the tune of 800,000 people to fill jobs and apprenticeships that do not attract Germans with university education anymore and are setting up training camps of their own. However, there are still challenges in the integration programme because although many refugees have a higher education and could fill in technical positions, a significant number are illiterate and cannot be trained to take high skill jobs. Another issue is the uncertainty about the acceptance of asylum of refugees being trained, which can make employers reluctant to provide said training. So the age old problem of supply of labour not lining up with its demand persists despite the best efforts of the German government.
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