Merkel’s Pledge to Help Refugees Thwarted by Pandemic Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Five years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s historic pledge to welcome refugees, the pandemic shock is dealing a fresh blow to those migrants granted asylum.

A surge in joblessness this year has disproportionately hit Germany’s foreign workforce. According to a recent breakdown of labor data, the unemployment rate among German citizens remained at 5.9% in June, while citizens from the most common asylum-seeking countries saw it rise to above 40%, compared to 32% last December.

Other foreign nationals have also experienced disproportionate gains in unemployment, with the rate increasing to almost 16% at the end of the second quarter.

One reason why people from the most common asylum-seeking countries have been affected more than others is that the jobs they often fill are in industries hit hard by the crisis. Over a quarter toil in the hospitality sector or have short-term contracts compared to less than 6% of the general workforce employed in those fields.

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