In 2023, over 24 million people with a migration background were living in Germany.¹ People with a migration background are those, who themselves have immigrated to Germany since 1950 (first generation) or who are direct descendants (second generation). Many people coming to Germany stated that the main reasons for them to immigrate included employment, fleeing their home country and family reunification were (by people who immigrated in or after 2013).² Nearly half of the people with a migration background were women.¹
Many female internationals coming to Germany are experiencing issues with access to skilled employment, which leads to a significantly lower employment rate overall. Issues for that are high recognition requirements in Germany leading to a lack of recognition of degrees and qualifications, and a lack of childcare facilities. As, they need to take care of their children and therefore struggle to find a flexible job.³
To better understand the opportunities and challenges of migrant women in the German labour market, we conducted a study in November 2023. The survey was targeted on female internationals living in Germany.
If you are an international woman and also want to contribute to our survey with your answers, you can still fill it out here.
So far, several hundred female migrants have filled out the survey. The answers reveal insights about the struggles and expectations that those women experience in Germany and the German labour market.
The first question was targeted to ask about the desired fields of work. Data analysis and science came in first place (19%), followed by project management (17%) and IT (10%), marketing (8%) and finance (7%). A high amount of the stated fields are in STEM. STEM is an area that is lacking an enormous amount of skilled labour workers right now. According to the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, the proportion of unfilled vacancies in the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is 38%.⁴
Requested educational programmes:
| 1. | Data analytics & science | 19 % |
| 2. | Project management | 17 % |
| IT | 10 % | |
| 3. | Marketing | 8 % |
| 4. | Finance | 7 % |
| 5. | HR | 4,4 % |
| 6. | Web development / UX & UI | 4,0 % |
| 7. | Renewable energy | 3,1 % |
| 8. | Innovation/Digitalization | 1,8 % |
| 9. | Sales | 0,4 % |
| 10. | Other | 23,6 % |
34% of the female internationals asked stated that learning German was the biggest hurdle for them entering the job market. The second most answered aspect was finding a new job here (33%). To find an educational programme that fits their interests was also stated as being the biggest challenge in the German job market by 13%.
In another question, women were asked if they had a community around them that they could turn to when needing support. Surprisingly, 62% of the respondents replied that they did not have a support system in Germany.
Biggest challenges in Germany to start a career
| 1. | Learning German | 19 % |
| 2. | To find a job | 17 % |
| Find an educational programme | 10 % | |
| 3. | Integration into the German society | 8 % |
| 4. | Support at jobcenter/Afa | 7 % |
| 6. | Others | 39 % |
When asked about a free service that would be needed to start their career in Germany, most women stated that support with finding a job would be most important to them (51%). 18% responded that support with finding a government funded educational programme would be helpful to them. Other support was asked for learning German (15%), for appointments at the Jobcenter (5%), with applying for a visa, etc.
Another question focused on what free of charge services were needed for finding a government funded educational course. Most respondents stated that a course counselling to find a fitting course would be helpful to them (41%). Other frequent answers included support at their appointment to get a Bildungsgutschein (educational voucher) at the Jobcenter/Agentur für Arbeit (34%) and support with improving their CV and motivational letter (22%).
When asked about the kind of events that would be useful to them, 47% of the females asked in our survey revealed that they would be interested in events that would educate them about the German labour market. The second most chosen option were events that would help them find educational programs (27%) and the third was to connect them with other women in Germany (13%).