5 min. Language lessons with childcare for refugees in Regensburg

The proportion of women among asylum seekers rose continuously between 2015 (31%) and 2021 (41%) (Phineo Expertise "Fempowerment", 2018; BAMF, 2022) and will increase significantly again in 2022 in view of the refugee movements from Ukraine. However, while in 2018 around 70% of men and 65% of women without children or with children aged 4 and over attended an integration language course, this was only the case for around 40% of women with small children (BAMF, 2020). As a result, the time-intensive care of small children means that only 22% of women in this group attest to their (very) good German skills (BAMF, 2020). Women with small children are often largely excluded from social participation or access to training and work for years due to a lack of language support. Statistically, the approximately 236,000 people with so-called "tolerated deportation" in Germany (Diakonie, 2021) are largely ignored. These people have often been living in Germany for several years and a return to their home country is uncertain. Nevertheless, they only have access to official language courses under very specific conditions. In addition, the state system of integration language courses has now been expanded to include courses with accompanying childcare, but in reality these are not yet sufficiently implemented due to organizational difficulties. As a result, controlled (= accompanied by lessons / systematic) language acquisition is often delayed by years, especially among women with (small) children, which leads to a certain amount of "misspeaking" at a low level. The aim of the project is to specifically promote the (linguistic) potential of refugee women with small children. As studies show, the improved integration of refugee mothers achieved as a result also has a significant impact on the later integration of their children (OECD, 2018).