Migrant trainees face exit as attitudes harden in Austria
PABNEUKIRCHEN, Austria — In a small town in northern Austria, Sylvia Hochstoeger never imagined she would become the figurehead for a protest movement.
But it was the threat of expulsion hanging over Shafi, an Afghan apprentice training at her business, which forced her to fight against an “absurd” situation.
“They tell you that integration is the most important thing, that you have to show that you’re integrated. Shafi’s done that. He’s learned German, he’s found a job and he’s developed a good social setting,” she said.
With her husband, Hochstoeger runs a zinc roofing business in Pabneukirchen, about 150 kilometers west of Vienna.
Shafi, 23, was recruited as an apprentice in 2016 while he waited for his asylum claim to be processed. But a few months ago, his request was turned down so he filed an appeal and is now anxiously awaiting the outcome.
And he’s not alone. Around a third of the 850 candidates for asylum who are in training are facing the same threat, says Rudi Anschober, an MP handling integration issues in Upper Austria who has taken up the case on behalf of the businesses involved and their trainees.
In a country lacking manpower in many sectors, “we have to take a long-term view on asylum-seekers. In this sense, apprenticeships are ideal, everyone’s a winner,” said Anschober, a member of the Green Party.
But in Austria, the political discourse on migrants has hardened significantly since December, when Sebastian Kurz took over as chancellor at the head of a coalition grouping his center-right People’s Party (OeVP) with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).
Under Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, an FPOe hard-liner, the expulsion of rejected asylum-seekers has become a priority, mainly targeting Afghans.
The government is reducing aid for refugees, with groups criticizing the reduction in funding for integration initiatives such as German lessons or professional coaching — all set up by Kurz when he was in charge of foreign affairs and integration.
In 2012, Austria passed a decree allowing businesses to recruit asylum-seekers as apprentices in sectors where there was a shortage of workers.
In Upper Austria alone, about 3,000 such placements remain unclaimed in a country where apprenticeships have always played a key role in the education system as young people increasingly shun a range of technical professions seen as unattractive.
From villages to large cities, sections of Austrian society, however, continue to mobilize to support newcomers.
Monika Mayrhofer, a retiree, took in Bashar, a 20-yearold Afghan who has been doing an apprenticeship, nearly two years ago.
“Knowing Bashar changed the mind of one of his colleagues who wanted to vote FPOe. People just have to meet each other,” she said.