‘One-euro jobs’ plan

Asylum seekers in Austria will be offered jobs paying only 1 (NZ$1.55) an hour until they learn to speak German under proposed integration legislation. Migrants who turn down jobs such as serving food in a refugee hostel will have their state benefits reduced, in line with a similar scheme used to motivate the long-term unemployed in Germany. The measures are among proposals by Sebastian Kurz, the minister for integration and foreign affairs, designed to tackle low levels of education and training among some of the 90,000 migrants who claimed asylum in Austria last year. The mandatory community ‘‘one-euro jobs’’ for refugees who lack qualifications would require them to work 15 to 30 hours a week.