African graduates in Germany

Most students from African countries who happen to study in Europe or the US prefer to work in the respective countries after graduating.

But statistics from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Germany’s job center), reveal that the number of unemployed graduates of African descent has increased from about 2,000 to nearly 12,000 from June 2013 to June 2014.

Although Germany has opened its doors for foreign experts and qualified professionals to work in the country, this however, is mostly limited to doctors, engineers, scientists and IT specialists.

Many people who have other degrees have trouble getting a job. One of them is a Nigerian woman, who prefered to remain anonymous.

After completing her Masters degree in Human Resource Management at a University in the southeast of England a year ago, she moved to the German city of Bonn to join her husband who works as a researcher in a German Institute.

Before she moved to Bonn, the former capital city of Germany which hosts a number of international companies, she thought her degree would have earned her a decent job.

"When I first got here I was looking for English speaking jobs, for example in the UN, Deutsche Post – DHL and other companies that speak English where I could use my English because I didn't speak German when I got here," she said.

But wherever she turned to, there was no job for her. She eventually understood that there are few vacancies and priority is given to applicants who also speak German and she didn't.

Help from the job center

"Then I started looking for other part-time jobs," she noted. But that didn't make her happy; after all she holds a Masters Degree. After months of trying she decided to go to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Germany's job center) for more help.

The Job center does not only help people find a job, it also offers advisory services and training workshops. Maria-Theresia Jansen is part of the team in charge of the training workshops in Bonn.

"Anyone can come for advice. If you go to our website www.arbeitsagentur.de you'll see that there are advisory services for graduates. These are in about 27 locations in Germany," she said.

"I think that is what motivated me to learn German because that is what the lady said to me. She said it was important for me to learn German," the young woman told DW in an interview.

To increase her chances of getting a job, she then decided to give in to the job center's advice and enrolled herself in a German class which she attends from Monday to Friday.

German language a key to success

It's a different story for David Kamau, a doctor at a hospital in a small town 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Bonn. David is Kenyan and came to Germany years back to study medicine at the University of Bonn. After finishing his university studies he got a one year internship that led him to work where he is now.

"So in actual sense I didn't have to look out for a job or to go through so many applications but I just had the opportunity of doing an internship and ended up being taken for the job," David said.

This is because there is a shortage of doctors in Germany, especially in rural areas, where some hospitals now offer scholarships to students who are committed to working for them.

David also emphasized that having a good command of the German language is very important when someone wants to work in Germany.

"By the fact that I speak German and I studied in Germany gives me an upper hand towards other doctors looking for a job," he added.

The opportunities for getting a job in Germany are there but the area of study does play a big role and there is no escaping the German language.