BERLIN (Reuters) – Nigeria Iyke Anakua has worked for 14 months as a welder, a job he got through a recruitment agency in Berlin, when he received news in mid-March that he would be redundant.

“I waited so long for a job and now I have to start all over again,” he said, wearing a black hat and a big smile in the poor Neukoelln district in Berlin. “It’s difficult but I’m trying to stay positive.”

Anakua, who is 46 and has three children, considers himself lucky because his wife’s job as a security guard at a supermarket is not affected by coronavirus locking. His salary combined with the unemployment benefit he received was enough for them to survive.

This pandemic is driving unemployment among migrants at a faster rate than among Germans, hampering the country’s previously successful push to integrate into its labor market, a record 1.1 million people who arrived in 2015 seeking asylum.

Unemployment among migrants, who are mostly employed in the service sector who were paralyzed during the six week confinement, rose by 27% from March to June, Federal Labor Office data showed. This compares to a 20% increase among Germans.

“Migrants are more affected by the crisis because they mostly occupy jobs that cannot be done from home,” said Herbert Bruecker from Humboldt University of Berlin. “We talk about work in restaurants, hotels, cleanliness, transportation and security.”

With relatively low levels of education and language skills, migrants are over-represented in the service sector. The sector is slowly emerging, but is still being held back by weak demand.

About 28% of asylum seekers and refugees were employed in hospitality or through temporary employment agencies last year, compared to 4% from Germany, a study by the Cologne Economic Research Institute (IW Koeln) shows.

“Migrants are also employed disproportionately in small companies, where work protection is weaker so that layoffs are easier and cheaper,” Bruecker said. “There is also a ‘last entry, first exit’ rule. All this puts migrants in an unprofitable position. ”

GENERAL EXPENDITURE

Since 2015, Germany has spent tens of billions of euros on integration strategies focused on language and vocational training, hoping to get newcomers out of prosperity and start working.

This effort was aided by an economy that had grown in its 11th year before the pandemic, and by the labor market which was paralyzed due to chronic shortages.

Nearly 40% of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria and Somalia, who are mostly asylum applicants, were employed at the beginning of this year, up from 16.4% in January 2016.

Experts have estimated that this figure will reach or even exceed 50% by the end of this year.

But the pandemic canceled the profit.

CONTACT SOCIAL

Crisis makes integration difficult in other ways.

Because compulsory integration and language courses were moved from classrooms to home-based e-learning and social interaction was limited, migrants lost contact with native speakers.

“School closures also have a negative impact on migrant children, whose parents often wrestle with home schooling because of weak language skills,” said Wido Geis-Thoene of the economic institution IW Koeln.

Despite the setbacks, the prospect of migrants remains broadly positive, especially as the economy seems to improve and a rapidly aging population means that labor shortages will increase, creating more opportunities for migrants.

“The employment perspective for migrants will be unprofitable for a year or two,” Geis-Thoene said. “But the big picture remains favorable because of negative demographic developments.”

The German working age population shrank 360,000 years ago and the trend is expected to increase.

“We have a surge of migrants who come to us looking for advice after they lost their jobs in March and April,” said Olga Klus, a consultant with Work and Live, a charity funded by the government’s Fair IQ Network Integration Network project to help migrants.

“It is very sad to see that most do not know about their rights under German labor laws,” Klus added. “But the situation is stabilizing.”

Nearly four months after he lost his job as a welder, Nigerian Anakua received a call from his former labor agent last week asking if he wanted to return.

“I can’t believe it. They say their client came back asking for welders and they are satisfied with my work and want me to come back,” he said. “I’m very happy.”