Stephanie Vo began her job search in Germany with optimism.

The American had completed a master's degree in sustainable development at the University of Leipzig and would then like to work in Germany.

"Everyone said to me: You'll find a job," the 26-year-old recalls her search last year.

"You have a German degree, Germany wants you," she was told.

Her clerk at the job center also gave her hope that the job market was good and that the topic of sustainability was in demand.

She started writing applications.

Germany is popular as a study location for foreign students, more than 330,000 students from abroad were enrolled at German universities in 2020.

That is about three times as many as at the beginning of the millennium.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, the majority of them are aiming for a degree in engineering, but law, economics and social sciences or mathematics and natural sciences are also popular.

problems before graduation

Many of these students do not want to leave Germany after they have completed their studies, according to the results of the current study “Supporting international students in Germany to achieve academic success” by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

According to this, 76 percent of the 657 master’s students surveyed would like to stay in Germany after they graduate (see chart).

However, there are no current figures on how many people actually stay.

In 2015, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees came to the conclusion that just over half of the people who came to Germany from third countries to study continued to live in the country afterwards.

The rest either didn't want to stay or fell through various hurdles.

In the eyes of Joybrato Mukherjee, people like Stephanie Vo actually belong to the “ideal immigrants”.

Mukherjee is President of the DAAD.

These “ideal immigrants” have a German degree, and most of them already have language skills and have built up an environment for themselves.

“Winning these people over to the job market is the silver bullet,” says Mukherjee.

In the meantime, this has also arrived politically: With the European Blue Card and the Skilled Immigration Act, there is a good legal basis for perspectives to stay.

However, hurdles remain: people from so-called third countries must be able to show an employment contract for a visa.

Stephanie Vo couldn't produce one, even though she was sending out more and more applications: She mostly got rejections or no replies at all, but she was also occasionally invited to job interviews.

"The job interviews in German were really a challenge," she recalls.

She did her best.

Still it didn't work.

Vo sought help, got tips on what a cover letter or CV should look like in Germany.

She also attended application training at the university.

"I often got conflicting advice," she recalls, for example on the question of whether or not a photo is necessary on the CV.

In the USA, most applicants omit this today, in Germany many companies still attach importance to it.

Vo revised her application documents,

Foreign students often have problems before they graduate.

According to the current DAAD study, they drop out significantly more often than German students.

"Part of the reason is that they underestimate the language requirements of studying in Germany," says expert Mukherjee.

In addition, some of the students find it difficult to integrate.

Students from non-European countries in particular often face challenges.

On the other hand, targeted integration programs at universities that bring foreign and German students together would help.

“Programs like this should actually be long-term, but there is often a lack of money.”