Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Bufdis Jobs?

The term "Bufdis" came up in the German news today.  It's not a simple word to define.....basically it means a federalized volunteer worker who gets paid roughly 360 to 380 Euro a month....with an additional allowance possible for food and accommodations.

What the German government said (via news media reports) is that they are creating an additional 10,000 Bufdis jobs over the next year for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.....well.....meaning those who passed and got a visa but in some pattern of waiting.

The cost to this?  A pot of fifty million Euro has been set aside for the the next three years.  You, as a city or municipality or federalized agency helping the refugee mission.....could ask for funding and get people temporarily approved for the volunteer work.

Jobs?  You could be used as domestic helpers in old-folks homes or in refugee camps/centers.

It's not meant to be any kind of career move and I think a number of people will feel insulted because it's work beneath them or their prior position in life.  Lets face it.....it is absolute minimum wage, with your accommodations covered.  It's pure pocket money until the Arbeitsamt (job-center) comes up with a 'real' job.....which might be months and months away.

I should note.....the 2016 Bundestag budget also passed this morning.....317 billion Euro total.  Of that, ONLY 7.5 billion Euro has been tasked for the asylum, immigration and refugee episode.  My humble guess is that the states will have depleted that by mid-summer of 2016 and will have to find another 7.5 billion by that point.  The positive is that the Bundestag only has to admit this lesser money to the news media and public now and everyone will feel great that it's not an overwhelming amount of money (like that twenty billion that was discussed in August by a private foundation guessing the 2016 requirement for immigrants).

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