On the occasion of the International Refugee Day on June 20, 2017, the umbrella association of migrant organizations in Germany - DaMigra e. V. - the discrimination of women * with migration and refugee history on the labor market and calls for effective anti-discrimination measures.

Refugee women * who are looking for security in Germany often very quickly want to get involved and participate and accordingly set themselves two goals: to learn the language in exchange with the majority society and to find a job. However, there is still a lack of counseling and empowerment offers, as well as effective anti-discrimination measures. Women * with a history of migration and flight suffer from this, all the more because they are exposed to multiple discrimination on the labor market - based on their origin, their gender and their sexuality.

“We have to keep finding that qualified job references from women * with a history of migration or refugee status are not recognized. This is a scandal, not least because of the shortage of skilled workers. At DaMigra we advise women * who can be proven to work as programmers *, engineers * or lecturers *. Only they are not taken seriously by the responsible authorities and on the labor market, and instead pushed into the low-level sector, into the area of ​​care work. Such cases are not isolated. On the contrary: they are unfortunately common practice, ”explains Dr. Delal Atmaca, board spokeswoman for DaMigra e. V.

Many refugee women * hardly have a realistic chance of integrating into the German labor market. Her unclear prospect of staying makes her situation even worse. However, numerous studies also show that people with a history of migration who were born and raised in Germany are discriminated against on the labor market. It is well known that German names are clearly preferred in invitations to job interviews. The Diversity Charter calls this “unconscious prejudices”. DaMigra calls this injustice “clear discrimination”.

“We should agree: that we can no longer afford to do without important specialists. Even more, we should finally start to break open the discriminatory structures in the authorities, on the labor market and in society in order to use the valuable resources of women * with migration and refugee backgrounds for the common good. We depend on the skills of these women *, ”says Atmaca.

DaMigra has teamed up with other organizations and institutions to use election test stones for the 2017 federal election to ask the parties about their offers of inclusive and specific labor market policy measures for refugee women * as well as anti-discrimination measures.