Fresh diapers for the children, a hot shower, finally a bit of sleep: For the 100 to 200 refugees from the Ukraine who arrive day after day at the Frankfurt first aid center at the exhibition center, the first things to do are basic needs.

This is how Dierk Dallwitz from the German Red Cross, who looks after the first aid center together with the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, tells it.

“Many are physically and mentally exhausted.

At the same time, they are very afraid for their family members at home,” says Dallwitz.

Britta Beeger

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

On Monday, the vaccination center moved out of the exhibition halls, so more camp beds are now being set up there for people from Ukraine: 1,800 should be there by the weekend.

People are allowed to stay for up to 72 hours, at least that's the plan.

Many then drive to the central initial reception facility in Gießen to be registered, because only then are they entitled to state aid and access to the job market.

Others travel on to friends and relatives in other countries.

Some want to stay in Frankfurt.

"We also help here where we can," says Dallwitz.

Long-term integration required

As in Frankfurt, municipalities, aid organizations and volunteers throughout Germany are currently trying to provide the people from Ukraine with the essentials.

Their flight has different backgrounds and accompanying circumstances than the great migration in the shadow of the Syrian war almost seven years ago - but their magnitude and the associated logistical challenges for the receiving countries are hardly inferior.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks of “probably the largest refugee movement since the Second World War”.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 225,000 people from Ukraine had been officially registered as war refugees in Germany by Monday morning.

However, the total number is probably much higher, since Ukrainians with a passport can initially enter the country without a visa and thus without automatic registration.

Experts and politicians are calling for longer-term integration to be considered today.

"After the immediate emergency aid, the right course must be set right from the start in order to create living space and job opportunities and to enable the children to attend school and daycare," said Markus Lewe, President of the German Association of Cities and Mayor of Münster FAZ

The Standing Scientific Commission of the Conference of Ministers of Education and the Advisory Council for Integration and Migration also warned on Monday that refugee children should be able to attend day-care centers or schools as quickly as possible.

This is "important regardless of the question of return or whereabouts".

Early integration into the education system offers a piece of normality and everyday life and prevents later inequalities.

"It's going to be a massive feat"

According to information from City Day President Lewe, the cities are already preparing welcome classes in schools and special care groups in day-care centers.

However, additional capacities are required for this, he emphasizes, after all, day-care centers are already scarce.

"It will be a tremendous feat." Probably also in financial terms: Lewe did not name a specific magnitude of the expected costs, since it is not yet clear how many people will come to Germany.

However, he demanded that the care of the people and the integration offers "be financed for the most part by the federal and state governments".

The federal and state governments want to clarify this in more detail by the beginning of April.

The migration researcher Herbert Brücker from the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research advocates taking into account the childcare and school offers for the children when distributing the refugees to the federal states and municipalities - as well as the labor market opportunities for their parents.

"The distribution shouldn't just be about where there is still free living space," he warns, referring to experiences from 2015. At that time, many refugees ended up in economically weak regions.

"Their employment rates are still a few percentage points lower than those of other refugees." The Center for European Economic Research came to similar conclusions with regard to the availability of kindergarten places for mothers with small children who fled the war in Syria.

Refugees from the Ukraine are now – at least if they arrive with registered trains and buses – distributed to the regions according to fixed quotas.

Unlike in 2015, however, there are no residence requirements for them;

so they don't have to stay in the assigned place.