Social benefits provided to Ukrainian refugees in Germany amount to 6.3 billion euros annually, while the total amount of such payments in the country reaches 46.9 billion euros. This was reported by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksiy Makeyev on the social network X after the Prime Minister of Bavaria and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Markus Söder spoke out over the weekend in favor of ending these payments.
“More than a million Ukrainians have found refuge here in Germany. About 70% of them are women and children. More than 30% of Ukrainians are already employed in Germany. Sometimes statistics are the most convincing argument,” the Ukrainian ambassador emphasized.
According to Söder, aid payments create barriers to integration into the labour market: despite high education and qualifications, many Ukrainians face difficulties in finding work.
“We must ensure that all payments are stopped for everyone who came from Ukraine. This should not only apply to new arrivals, but also to all existing ones,” he said on ZDF on Sunday.
According to official figures, Germany will spend 22.2 billion euros on payments to foreigners under the Bürgergeld program in 2024, while 24.7 billion euros were spent on German citizens. Söder plans to push for changes in the government coalition, although his initiative goes beyond the previously agreed plan.
According to Eurostat, at the end of May this year, 1.9 million refugees from Ukraine had temporary protection status in Germany, which is 27.9% of the total number of refugees in the EU. Over the course of the year, the number of refugees from Ukraine with this status decreased by 139,680 people.
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