{More than 4,000 job-seekers attend Berlin event, which aims to help integrate asylum seekers by finding them employment.}<\/p>\n
Berlin, Germany – Thousands of job-seeking refugees have attended an employment fair in the German capital of Berlin which attracted 211 prospective employers from a number of fields, including information technology, medicine, tourism and construction.<\/p>\n
Monday’s event at the Estrel Hotel was part of a collaborative effort by the public and private sector to integrate refugees with protection status into the local labour market.<\/p>\n
According to Christian Henkes, spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, which co-organised the event, the turnout was higher than expected, with more than 4,000 job-seekers in attendance.<\/p>\n
“There’s big interest on [the] part of the employers that really want to give these people a chance in the country,” Henkes told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
“And there’s also a huge willingness by those people who came here to Germany to find a job.”<\/p>\n
A total of 476,649 asylum applications were registered in Germany last year, almost twice as many as in 2014.<\/p>\n
The number of applicants has continued to rise this year, with 52,103 applications registered in January alone.<\/p>\n
Over a third of the 2015 asylum applicants in Germany were Syrian nationals.<\/p>\n
Kais Almudhi, a Syrian refugee who worked as a mechanical engineer before the war, arrived in Germany three months ago and is now hoping to find work.<\/p>\n
He told Al Jazeera that it was important for him to make use of the opportunities the job fair presented.<\/p>\n
“I came here to consult with others, to choose what job is best, and I have registered with three or four companies. I think I have a good chance,” the 45-year-old said.<\/p>\n
The job fair took part in Neukolln, a district of Berlin where about 10 percent of the population is of Arab descent.<\/p>\n
“We invest in people to enable them to stand up for themselves,” said Franziska Giffey, Neukolln’s mayor, who was present at the fair.<\/p>\n
“Due to this, we have a really good chance of integration because when somebody works, when somebody learns the language, they integrate with the society and will make an effort to be a part of this country.<\/p>\n
“That’s important for social peace.”<\/p>\n
Germany’s private sector was represented at the job fair by large firms like Marriott – which operates four hotels in Berlin – and mid-size enterprises such as Bio Company, a popular chain of organic grocery stores.<\/p>\n
“Our goal is that in each of our stores, there will be one refugee,” said Helena Jachmann, Bio Company’s human resource officer, who recruited sales people at the fair.<\/p>\n
“Our CEO is very interested in being a part of the integration,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{More than 4,000 job-seekers attend Berlin event, which aims to help integrate asylum seekers by finding them employment.} Berlin, Germany – Thousands of job-seeking refugees have attended an employment fair in the German capital of Berlin which attracted 211 prospective employers from a number of fields, including information technology, medicine, tourism and construction. Monday’s event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23610"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}