Finding ANY jobs in Berlin: Tips for non-German speakers

[Guest]

 

we are not planning on moving to Switzerland

Yah, but how about someone on a fixed income who can choose where they reside? Makes a lot of sense to compare in their case IMO.

[Cloppy 57]

I just think that the whole place has not reached its foreigner saturation point. Pointing out the small numbers of foreigners there actually are, is a standard tactic against grumbling about too many immigrants. So you hear a lot of non-German in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, and Prenzlauer Berg. These districts make up a pretty small part of Berlin all in all.

 

 

I just think the whole place is reaching its foreigner saturation point. When I first got here in 2006 the wave was just beginning, and now it seems like you can't go anywhere in the Desirable Three (Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg) without hearing every second person speaking English or Spanish. And I wondered, how many of these visas and work permits are they going to hand out? How long until employers stop finding it novel to hire foreigners?

 

It seems now that foreigners--especially Americans--are starting to be seen as undesirable workers in gastronomie. Germans (customers, workers and employers alike) are tired of having to speak slowly and carefully to people who don't really speak the language. They're also tired of not feeling at home in their own country/city.

 

A friend of mine recently went in for her visa renewal and for the first time in six years was told that the decision was going to have to be made by the Agentur für Arbeit, although she's been working in the same field and has been steadily employed the entire time. I think they are finally putting the brakes on letting in the swarm of American workers, even if they are here to teach English or whatever else it is that only a native English speaker can offer. Kiwis and Aussies on working holidays are being sent back after the visa is expired regardless of whether they have someone willing to employ them. The situation is definitely changing from what it was even a year ago. They have finally wised up.

 

So if you're coming from another country in the EU they can't stop you, but better make sure your German is on point or you might not be getting a job anyway. My .02 and good luck.

 

Can your friend speak good German? What have they wised up to? Are Anglophone immigrants overwhelmingly going on welfare?

[Guest]

 

I just think that...

Hmmm. What we need is some, ehm, international statistical comparisons then it seems :D

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

 

I just think that the whole place has not reached its foreigner saturation point.

bully for you. Say, are you handing out work permits later on today? Hiring any workers?

 

 

Can your friend speak good German? What have they wised up to? Are Anglophone immigrants overwhelmingly going on welfare?

 

My friend speaks great German which is why she's not terribly worried about losing her job.

 

Anglophone immigrants are absolutely superfluous here, even in the fields that require native English speakers. Q. How do you know when there are too many Anglophone immigrants here? A: when not even experienced teachers stand a chance of getting a full schedule unless they're really good at networking and even then, not until they've been here for a couple of years (and there are plenty more long-termers who are just scraping by). You're getting paid shit money for English-teaching, far below even what could be expected given that Berlin is in general cheaper than other places in Germany--you're getting offered €10 and €12 an hour for work you should be getting at least €25 or €30 for and out of sheer desperation, PEOPLE ARE TAKING IT. Schools know that for every unit of classtime there are 10 teachers willing to take the job, no matter how crap and piddling it is.

 

Unless said Anglophones are skilled workers, they are just more people taking up jobs that unskilled Germans could be doing (have you seen the unemployment rate lately?). I think it was the Morgenpost that recently posted results of a poll, showing that up to 90% of Imbiss, bar and nightclub workers are working under the table. You've seen it a million times on Toytown: Speak no German, willing to do ANYTHING in Berlin, scrubbing toilets, collecting bottle caps etc. And they do, for shit money, paying zero taxes. When they run out of money they go home. In the long run these people contribute less than nothing to the German social system.

 

So *you* don't think Berlin is at foreigner saturation point because you've been to places that have more foreigners. Is it not possible that other cities can support an influx of migrant workers better than Berlin can at the moment? (Remembering of course alllllllllllll the many factors that make comparing them absolutely silly) You're a 25 year old Irishman, not sure if your opinion on how many foreigners is enough for Berlin is exactly qualified. But think about a person who grew up here and watched it change over the past 30 years? How about asking them what their idea is of their own city? Note that I posited this theory based on what I believe to be the feelings of many Germans, not the feelings of my good self who is so well-traveled and has seen so much more than these poor rubes who have no idea how things are being done in London, Paris and Dublin.

 

Certainly cities and times change, doesn't make the rest of your "argument" any less irrelevant.

[tom_a 459]

 

Perhaps not. As of 2009, there were 15026 Russians and 13301 U.S. citizens residing in Berlin

It's a matter of definition: Most of the "Russians" in Germany have German citizenship. For example, two and three houses down our street there are two large "Russian" families: I believe they all hold German citizenship, but speak exclusively Russian among themselves. And when they have barbecue parties in the backyard (they love to do that even in November - apparently anything above zero is garden party weather for Russians), all the numerous guests speak exclusively Russian. "Russian"? "German"? Who can tell? (Not that it actually matters, as far as I'm concerned...)

[fuzzy dunlop 31]

I don't think you can say that Berlin is saturated with anglophones just because "English teachers" with arbitrary qualifications can't find enough work.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

Why not?

 

Just about anybody can be an English teacher, all he has to do is speak English. It's not a terribly narrow field or hard to get hired in if you're not completely illiterate. I think it's as apt a basis as any.

 

Did you have a contribution, observation or opinion of your own to give?

[fuzzy dunlop 31]

Some people enjoy living abroad because their nationality - being exotic and interesting to many, substitutes their lack of an agreeable personality. If their nationality becomes more commonplace in their adopted home, they may fear that their "specialness" is being watered down.

 

Also, is it only anglophones who are "taking up jobs that unskilled Germans could be doing"?

[AmandaUCSC 1,152]

Hmmm... I wonder how many Americans began to show up here post-2007/2008 when the economy tanked big time... I'd rather live here on a pithy salary and savings than pay ~$1000 for a room per month in a house shared with several roommates in California...

 

Anyways, I have a question related to the topic of job searching here. I've looked through a bunch of topics and done some searching here, but I'm unable to find what I need (I admit I might just be searching for the wrong keywords). I'm looking for a job or internship (part-time for now, while I work on my dissertation, that would either be related to 1) substitute teaching (preferably at one of the local schools, international I guess) 2) any job at all where I use the languages I know (native English and proficient in French and Chinese, but only just began German) or 3) will give me some time to re-gain some of the web development skills I have neglected while getting my PhD (worked for a while in that). Ideally I have this long-term plan of entrepreneurial/institutional teaching and research, but obviously that requires networking and finishing the PhD---and yes, I'm working on both of these. I just need something small in between. I was thinking if anyone knew a company or university, for example, that needed someone to help in terms of websites or helping acquaint immigrants, students, or tourists from France, China, etc, maybe I could help out. I've seen nothing here about these sorts of jobs.... hard to believe when I see, for example, so many Chinese people here... and so few Germans who speak Chinese.

[mikebenda 287]

Good point about the abundance of English speaking people in Berlin, particularly the swarms of Americans.

 

I didn't spend six years and thousands of dollars and euros studying German, sell all of my possessions, quit my cushy job, and leave my friends behind (not to mention excellent Mexican food), just to be surrounded by English. In the past year I've even started to hear American accents way out here in the suburbs of Moabit.

 

Could you all just go somewhere else please? I'd really like to be the only one here. Thank you. ;)

[mikebenda 287]

 

Topics merged by adminHello everybody.I will be moving to Berlin following the Christmas holidays. I have recently graduated University and payed off my debts, so I thought that this would as good a time as any to try something new out. My degree is in history and English, ...

 

Ok, sorry to be picky about this but isn't it "paid off my debts"? I only question this because you said that you just graduated from University with a degree in English.

[matthewsmith 54]

People want to move to Berlin because it is so much better than most other German cities which to me just seem somehow stuffy and boring in comparison. It is laid back with something for everyone and all tastes.

Even Hamburg I find a bit samey and quite kind of snobby compared with Berlin tho' it is a decent enough substitute choice if you want to live in a big city in Germany and there are probably many more jobs there.

So young people can be forgiven for wanting to give Berlin a go, why should they waste their youth working in boring places like Munich or Stuttgart just because there are jobs there?. I spent 6 months in Munich and almost died of boredom, I remember having more fun in Berlin in one weekend than I did in my entire time in Munich.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

 

Some people enjoy living abroad because their nationality - being exotic and interesting to many, substitutes their lack of an agreeable personality. If their nationality becomes more commonplace in their adopted home, they may fear that their "specialness" is being watered down.Also, is it only anglophones who are "taking up jobs that unskilled Germans could be doing"?

 

I think half of Toytown has forgotten how to argue today.

 

Just be a dear and point out where anything I wrote contradicts what you just wrote, including what I hope is your rhetorical question.

[Guest]

 

Most of the "Russians" in Germany have German citizenship.

Ah, time to cue in the good auld Volga Germans again methinks. Na zdorovje!

[El Jeffo 42,134]

Russian history in Berlin goes back over a century - they don't call it "Charlottengrad" for nothing"

 

Hertha put this poster - advertising the match against Schalke - up all over town a few years back. Schalke are sponsored by Gazprom.

 

[rick_de 826]

 

People want to move to Berlin because it is so much better than most other German cities which to me just seem somehow stuffy and boring in comparison. It is laid back with something for everyone and all tastes.

Even Hamburg I find a bit samey and quite kind of snobby compared with Berlin tho' it is a decent enough substitute choice if you want to live in a big city in Germany and there are probably many more jobs there.

So young people can be forgiven for wanting to give Berlin a go, why should they waste their youth working in boring places like Munich or Stuttgart just because there are jobs there?. I spent 6 months in Munich and almost died of boredom, I remember having more fun in Berlin in one weekend than I did in my entire time in Munich.

 

Yep, I second that. Germany's other cities are like Toytown (which after all is how this forum got its name).

 

Berlin has its problems, but also its pluses, and for many, the pluses of Berlin are plus enough.

 

So do you want to live in Toytown - or in a real city?

 

If we are going to accept Toytown then we might as well stay at home.

[Guest]

 

So young people can be forgiven for wanting to give Berlin a go

Not on my tax money though. Whereas Horst oder Helga, age 60, ex-VEB Hinternfick, unemployed for 20 years and living in a council scheme in Marzahn really CAN be forgiven for wanting to give the Eastern Plattenbaus a last desperate go (indirectly) using my hard-earned moola - and not least because they were most likely driven out of their long-time Prenzelberg tenancy by a guy with an ironic moustache and a groovy position with a startup producing novel solutions for doing all kinds of totally useless & stupid shite with your Handy.

 

Now THAT'S equitable and that, innit?

[fuzzy dunlop 31]

I don't come here to argue, I come here to discuss.

 

You were saying that the number of English teachers was indicative of saturation of anglophones, I said that I don't think it is a reliable marker. It may be an indication of a saturation of English teachers in that particular area of the employment market, but not necessarily of the employment market in Berlin as a whole.

[El Jeffo 42,134]

You haven't revealed your nationality, fuzzy dunlop, but for non-EU English-speakers without a second passport or German spouse, freelance English teaching is pretty much the only way to get a visa - short of getting hired with a salary high enough to bypass the Vorrangprüfung, of course, but that would probably entail having an offer before coming here. That's why English teachers were used as the yardstick.

[dessa_dangerous 13,315]

From my Webster's Universal Encyclopedic (a monster of a volume):

 

argue:

 

1. to give reasons for or against something : REASON

2. to contend or disagree in words : DISPUTE

3. to give evidence of : INDICATE

4. to consider the pros and cons of : DISCUSS

5. to persuade or try to prove by giving reasons

 

discuss:

 

1. a. to investigate by reasoning or argument

b. to present in detail for examination or consideration

c. to talk about

 

anyhootles. Like I said. An apparent lack of, today.