"For the last six months, I have been feeling pressure from the German authorities to help Ukrainians find jobs faster and not sit on welfare", – says to LIGA.net Ukrainian girl Karina Drozd-Dragan. She is from the Kyiv region, in April 2022 she could not stand in the shelling and moved to the Bavarian city Augsburg. Up to 300,000 people live here, of which 25,000 are Ukrainian refugees.

Karina has been receiving unemployment benefits, called bürgergeld, for two years – around €500. She taught English in Ukraine, but she is not allowed to work in Germany until she gets an education and learns German well. "I want to get a job because I don’t have enough money," she says.

Germany plans to reduce assistance for Ukrainians, but this will only affect those who arrived after April 1, 2025: they will not receive bürgergeld (up to €563), but a smaller amount – the same as other refugees (up to €460). This idea is being promoted by the Prime Minister of Bavaria Markus Söder, explaining this by budget savings and the fact that most Ukrainians do not work.

LIGA.net talked to Ukrainians in Germany. From this text you will learn:

  • who is proposing to reduce aid to Ukrainian refugees and why;
  • What are the biggest difficulties faced by Ukrainians who want to work?
  • how Germans' attitudes towards Ukrainians are changing and what conflicts exist among refugees.

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