Job access for asylum seekers in Austria: Supreme Court lifts restrictions

There is good news in Austria regarding asylum seekers’ access to the labour market. In recent years it has been almost impossible for asylum seekers in Austria to gain access to the labour market. There were very few exceptions, for example asylum seekers were allowed to work as harvest workers or in some cases as seasonal workers.

Access to other work or the start of vocational training was denied to asylum seekers by two controversial decrees. These decrees have now been overturned by the Constitutional Court. This means that the same rules now apply to asylum seekers in Austria as to other third-country nationals, i.e. migrants from non-EU countries. If no national qualified for the job or no suitable citizen from another EU country can be found, labour market access must be granted. The asylum seeker must have been admitted to the asylum procedure for three months – neither he nor the employer may have violated the Employment of Foreign Nationals Act before. Thus, it should be possible again for asylum seekers in Austria to learn an apprenticeship in a shortage occupation.

Among others, the Austrian daily DERSTANDARD reported on these news on 14 July 2021. As part of the Mirage project, Südwind had the article translated into Arabic, Dari/Farsi and Pashto in order to make the information more accessible to asylum seekers.

Here you can find the original article from the daily newspaper DERSTANDARD in German > Jobzugang für Asylwerber: Höchstgericht hebt Einschränkungen auf – Wirtschaft – derStandard.at › Wirtschaft

translated into Arabic (Hyperlink PDF arabisch)

translated into Dari/Farsi (Hyperlink PDF Dari_Farsi)

translated into Pashto (Hyperlink PDF Paschto)