To support regional professionals and volunteers, as well as anyone else interested, the WelcomeCenter Saxony-Anhalt offered various training sessions on the fundamentals and current issues of labor market integration from October 2023 to January 2024. Participants had the opportunity to learn about the legal framework, receive up-to-date background information, and discuss regional challenges with other stakeholders.
The training sessions took place online via Teams and covered the following topics:
- Introduction to the legal framework and labor market access for refugees
- Tolerance for vocational training
- Skilled Worker Immigration Act
- EU citizens
- Opportunity Residence Act
The training sessions were conducted by the European Educational Institute for Work and Society. In total, over 200 people participated in the training sessions.
If you are interested in similar training sessions, please feel free to contact us.
The individual modules in detail:
Introduction to the Legal Framework and Labor Market Access for Refugees
In this module of our training series, we provided an overview of the legal framework and labor market access for refugees. This included, among other things, the asylum process, the various residence statuses, and topics such as family reunification and residency regulations.
Training Tolerance
Tolerance for vocational training is a special type of tolerance that requires the completion of at least a two-year vocational training program. The training covered requirements, duration of validity, application procedures, and other aspects of tolerance for vocational training.
Skilled Worker Immigration Act
The Skilled Workers Immigration Act, the first version of which has been in effect since 2020, makes it easier for skilled workers with vocational training or academic degrees and individuals with practical professional experience to immigrate to Germany. The first amendments took effect in 2023 and are intended to further simplify the hiring of employees from abroad. The training session explained, among other things, how the process works under various conditions and what the accelerated skilled worker procedure entails.
EU Citizens
EU citizens enjoy many freedoms and comprehensive protections: personal, civil, political, economic, and social rights; protection of personal data; protection against discrimination; and freedom of movement without border controls in most EU countries. All EU citizens have the right to enter the member states of the EU, the EEA (EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway), and Switzerland without a visa. EU citizens also have the right to reside in other member states and work there with virtually no restrictions and without special permission (see https://www.bmi.bund.de/DE/themen/migration/aufenthaltsrecht/freizuegigkeit-eu-buerger/freizuegigkeit-eu-buerger-node.html). The specifics of this and the exceptions were explained in this training session.
Opportunity Residence Act
The new law on the Right of Residence for Opportunities came into effect on December 31, 2022. The Right of Residence for Opportunities is a residence permit valid for 18 months. The training session explained in detail the requirements for applying.
