Ukrainian refugees

Vitaliy Balushinskiy came to Germany from Ukraine eight months ago. Now the 28 year old engineer lives with his wife and preschool-aged daughter in an apartment building in Wolgast, a town in the far northeast corner of Germany.

The building is used to house some 140 refugee applicants whose status hasn't been decided. Residents are provided a rent-free furnished apartment, a monthly stipend, donated clothing, and other benefits very similar to those granted to German welfare recipients.

Balushinskiy is a big strong fellow with a crewcut and a steady gaze. His German is quite good for someone who has only been in the country for a few months. He studied engineering in Lviv in western Ukraine, but when the chaos broke out a year and a half ago, he was working in Donetsk in the packaging industry.

"My job disappeared because of the war in the Donbass region and I went back to western Ukraine. Then I was told to register with the Ukrainian army. But I don't want to kill anyone," he said, "so I decided to leave the country." That's the basis of his application for refugee status.

Dim prospects

German law generally doesn't grant draft dodgers from other countries a right to political asylum. That means Balushinskiy's chances of having his application accepted are remote. The same is true for the great majority of other Ukrainian refugee applicants.

Nevertheless, Vitaliy Balushinskiy and his family have a good chance of being able to stay in the refugee apartment in Wolgast for quite a while.

The reason: German law says that each refugee application must be evaluated individually - but since August 2014, because of the uncertainty and fluidity of the situation in Ukraine, "we haven't been processing Ukrainian applications," according to a spokesperson for the German immigration and refugee agency, BaMF. "Applications from refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea have priority for now."

As long as his application remains in limbo, Balushinskiy can stay on in Wolgast.

Expulsion or recruitment?

Citizens from any European Union member nation can freely move to any other EU country, establish residency and legally get a job. But Ukraine isn't an EU member nation, and isn't likely to become one anytime soon. Yet a job in Germany is what Vitaliy Balushinskiy wants.

"I like Germany and the Germans," he said. "People are decent and helpful, the country is safe and orderly." He's been studying German to prepare himself for the job market here.

Milia Bentzien, the manager of the refugee home where Balushinskiy lives, said she is not allowed to get involved in the refugee claimant process - not even to give an opinion as a character witness.

"That's a real shame, because I have a lot of contact with the refugees who live here and I have a pretty good idea of who would fit into this country well and make a contribution," she said. "I think Vitaliy Balushinskiy and his family would fit in very well."

High unemployment

The unemployment rate is high in Vorpommern-Greifswald, the administrative region that includes Wolgast: 11.6 percent, almost double the national average of 6.3 percent. In addition, the under-employment rate - people in job training programs, part-time workers and other "near unemployed" - is 15.2 percent, compared to a national average of 8.1 percent.

"There were 415 refugee applicants as of July 20 in Vorpommern-Greifswald," said Nadine Hofmann, whose job with the regional administration includes trying to see to the "integration" of refugees. "It's not a huge number, but it's rising fast."

400,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Germany in 2015, and the national government is distributing them all around the country.

Given that regional governments have to pony up the money to pay for refugees as well as people on welfare and other social benefit recipients, it's not surprising that a fair amount of grumbling can be heard amongst locals when the topic of refugee claimants comes up.

They get new furniture

"We have to go to work every day," said a 30-ish woman in Tutow, an even smaller town southwest of Wolgast, outside an apartment building where several refugee families have been housed alongside local Germans. "And they get a free apartment with new furniture."

Like other locals interviewed, she doesn't want to give her name.

"It's a touchy subject," said an electronics-store worker during an outdoor smoke break with two colleagues in Anklam, another small town in the region. "But I think these refugees deserve our sympathy and solidarity, especially the ones coming from war zones."

But "there are lots of people here who don't have jobs and get welfare benefits," one of his colleagues said. "And now the refugees. Who pays for it all at the end of the day? We do."

At a sailing club anchorage in the nearby village of Mönkebude on the western shore of Stettiner Haff, two couples in their late 50s sit in a beautifully kept 1920s-vintage sailboat enjoying a summer evening's sundown. How do they see the refugee issue?, a passing journalist asks. They don't really want to talk about it. But then the words burst forth:

"Some folks work 50 years and get a modest little pension, and others come here from foreign countries and get an apartment and a nice whack of cash in hand every month for good measure, all for free," said one of the men. "And now good evening, sir."