Refugee integration biggest challenge since German reunification: business group

How to integrate the refugees is one of the biggest challenges faced by Germany since the country's reunification, said a leading German business group on Wednesday, expecting it would take years until the process completes.

"The integration of refugees into the labor market is one of the greatest challenges since reunification," said Eric Schweitzer, president of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).

Roughly 1.1 million asylum seekers entered Germany in 2015. A similar amount was expected to arrive this year.

Economists said the influx of refugees would benefit the German economy in the short term due to consumption and government spending on accommodating the newcomers. From a long-term perspective, however, a successful integration was necessary if Germany wanted to shift the crisis into an opportunity.

"It is clear that this process of integration will certainly take five to ten years," Schweitzer told Berliner Morgenpost newspaper, adding that to improve their chances of training and employment, asylum seekers must learn the German language quickly.

"They must bring their own integration commitment," he said.

If successfully integrated into the labor market, refugees are expected to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers in Germany, the biggest challenge faced by German companies.

Over two-thirds of German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the German economy's backbone, find it difficult to recruit qualified skilled workers, leaving 360,000 vacancies unfilled and amounting to annual revenue losses of nearly 46 billion euros (about 50 billion U.S. dollars), a survey by Ernst & Young (EY) found on Tuesday.

According to the survey, 55 percent of German SMEs looked to asylum seekers coming into Germany to help fill the labor gap, while 85 percent said they were ready to hire refugees. Endit