Birgit Schuster is perfectly prepared.

She has several copies of her curriculum vitae and references in a folder and on the first day after the Christmas holidays she roams through the Bautzner train station hall, where almost 60 companies from Upper Lusatia are presenting themselves that day.

She has already had two good conversations, says the woman from Bautzen, who moved to Munich in the mid-1990s at the age of 16.

"I left at the time because there was no training here," she says.

She wrote two dozen applications and only once received an answer.

In Munich, on the other hand, she was able to train as a retail clerk straight away.

She worked for delicatessen manufacturers, looked after finances, controlling and purchasing and is also very satisfied with her current job in a large family company.

Stephen Locke

Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.

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Nevertheless, she is planning a fresh start in her old home country – because she has not yet quit her current job, she does not want to give her real name.

"If so, then now," she says.

She is in her mid-40s and her parents, who live in Upper Lusatia, are not getting any younger either.

"The decision is definitely made." She agreed with her husband on that.

You met each other in Munich, he is from Meissen.

"He has the same story as me." Something connects them, as they usually have to do privately in the West with East Germans who have emigrated.

You have a child and inevitably spent a lot of time at home during Corona.

At that time, both of you decided to go back.

"We've always missed home, of course," she says.

"When I come here, I feel at home." Now all she needs is a suitable job.

That's why she's here today.

Her parents read about the returnee fair in the newspaper and drew her attention to it.

And the job offer is now quite plentiful.

For example at Lakowa, a fourth-generation family business that produces, among other things, complex plastic components for the interior lining of special vehicles such as ambulances.

"We are desperately looking for support," says HR employee Bianca Jannasch.

230 people currently work in the company, it has six vacancies, from production to the commercial area, and there are still vacancies for apprenticeships.

"We have a good volume of orders, we are growing, but we need people." The trade fair after Christmas, which is taking place live instead of online for the first time in three years, is a good meeting place.

Word has gotten around that you can make good contacts here.

The unemployment rate was once 25 percent

As soon as the doors open at 10 a.m., most of the stands are crowded.

Other companies have pinned vacancies with contact details to tear off on large partition walls: red for industrial jobs, green for services, blue for trades – a total of more than 250 vacancies.

Vendors hope to meet people here who will be visiting their families and old homes over the Christmas period.