Katrin, Boege
Senior Expert International Relations
Institute Work and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance 01109 Dresden
Germany
Phone: +49 351 4571124
Katrin.boege@dguv.de
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
In Germany, there are over 15 million people who have a migration background (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2007). People from different parts of Europe and the world, especially Turkish migrants and migrants from the former Soviet Union live and work in Germany. As the institution responsible for the prevention of workplace accidents, the German Social Accident Insurance wanted to know whether workers with a migration background needed specially designed prevention programmes in order to be well-protected at work. The hypothesis was that due to language difficulties or cultural differences, there may be a need for specialized safety and prevention trainings. In order to investigate this, a questionnaire and interview study was carried out to indentify the special risks and/or prevention needs that workers with a migration background may have.
Keywords:
Migration, Prevention Programmes, Labour Inspectors, Training Needs
INTRODUCTION
Migration Background
Germany has a population of 82 million people (www.statistikportal.de, downloaded on December 29, 2008). 15, 2 million or 18, 4 % of the population have a so called migration background. A person with a migration background is defined as a.) a person who lives in Germany but does not have a German passport or b.) as a person who does have a German passport but who has at least one parent who is not German (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2008). Most of the people with a migration background that live in Germany come from Turkey (14,2%) and the Russian Federation (8,4%), followed by Poland (6,9%), Italy (4,1%), Serbia and Montenegro (3,4%), Kazakhstan (3,3%), Rumania (3,0%), Croatia (2,5%), and Ukraine (1,9%) (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2008). Many people with a migration background, especially those that were born and schooled in Germany, are well integrated, have the German nationality and speak perfect German. However, people who have come to Germany at an older age, the so called “first generation” migrants or those who have migrated recently, often show problems with the German language (Uslucan, 2005). If this combines with little education and no specialised professional skills, these migrants are frequently employed in low-paid jobs and/or in jobs with dangerous working conditions (OECD,2003).
Accident Rates
The German Social Accident Insurance is one of five obligatory insurances within the German social security system. It insures employees during their activities at the workplace. Apart from rehabilitation and awarding compensation after an accident at work, one of its main tasks is the prevention of accidents at work and of occupational diseases. The prevention department wanted to find out whether there was a need for specialized prevention measures, especially trainings, for people with a migration background who work in Germany. The data concerning work accidents for people with a migration background do not present a clear picture. Many studies focus on non- German nationals rather than on workers with a migration background and often, sector and workplace information is not taken into account (Elsler et al, 2008). Some investigations suggest that work accident rates are higher among certain groups of non-German nationals: A study by the Robert Koch-Institute found that foreign nationals, especially Turkish nationals, are more often victims of work accidents than Germans and that the number of fatal accidents within this group is higher than among Germans (Robert Koch-Institute, 2008). In recent years, however, the accident rates are converging.
A study of the association of health insurers (BKK, 1997) showed that workers from Turkey, South Europe and former Yugoslavia were more days absent from work after a work accident than Germans. Yet, workers from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe returned to work earlier after a work accident than German nationals. The accident rates for non-German employees in one of the most highly populated areas of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, were slightly higher in the years from 1998 – 2006 than for German nationals (Arbeitsschutz NRW, 2009). Yet, the differences are small. A study investigating the public administration sector found that non-German nationals had slightly higher risks of having an accident at work, whereas the rate of accidents on the way to work was higher among the German nationals (DGUV, 2006). So the data point into the direction that being a non-German national might be associated with having a higher risk of suffering from an accident at work, yet, there is still no clear picture as to where exactly the crucial points for prevention and intervention are.
According to the data, it seemed that workers with a migration background may need special programs in order to prevent accidents. As the data are not conclusive, this study aimed at finding out if there is really a need for such prevention measures, especially for preventive trainings and if so, in what area. As the labor inspectors are in direct contact with the companies they visit on their inspection trips and are called upon whenever there is a workplace accident, the study wanted to draw on their experience and knowledge at the company level in order to assess the need for specialized prevention programs for employees with a migration background. In order to get a broad picture about various industrial sectors, an interview and questionnaire study with labour inspectors of different industrial sectors from all parts of Germany was carried out.
METHODOLOGY
In Germany, the social accident insurance is organized by industrial branches. Participants in this study were the accident insurances for the construction sector, the administrative sector, the school and public service sector, the quarry sector and the engineering sector The construction sector, the quarry sector and the engineering sector were included in the study because they show a high percentage of workerswith a migrant background, especially at the blue-collar level. The administrative sector insures people who are in temporary employment, where also many people with a migration background are employed. Finally, the insurance for schools and the public sector participated in the study, because the percentage of children at schools and kindergartens who have a migration background is high. In total, 121 Labour Inspectors of the above mentioned sectors participated in the study. 91 responded to a questionnaire and 30 were interviewed, answering the questions of the questionnaire. The number of inspectors interviewed varied from 9 in the social accident insurance for schools and public services to 43 in the insurance of the construction sector. Three of the inspectors were women, the rest were male. The answers of the inspectors were based on their daily work and their experiences with the firms, enterprises and institutions of the sector they are in charge of. The interviews were carried out between January and July 2009.
RESULTS
The data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. As the questions for the in- depth interviews were the same questions of the interview, the graphs below show the answers from the 121 labour inspectors. To give more detailed information about the issues at stake, quotes from the in-depth interviews will be added where necessary. First, the inspectors were asked if they saw the need to take action in the area of migration and prevention. About 20 % of the inspectors saw no need to act; compared to 80% who had the opinion that something should be done. In their answers, inspectors often referred to special branches, like temporary employment or special subgroups, like unskilled workers when expressing the need for action. The following graph shows the answer to the question “How big is, in your opinion, the need for action of the accident insurances in the area of migration and prevention?”
10% 34% 44% 12% 31% 38% 24% 7% 30% 52% 17% 44% 22% 33% 7% 40% 27% 27% 18% 40% 30% 12%
Construction Sector
Metal Sector
Quarry Sector
Schools, Kindergartens
Administrative Sector
Total
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
no need to act litte need to act
medium need to act high need to act
Graph 1: Assessing the need to act, answer to the question: “How big is, in your opinion, the need for action of the accident insurances in the area of migration and prevention?”
Interestingly, the biggest need for action was seen in the school and kindergarten sector. As there are many pupils with a migration background, inspectors who work in this area stated that prevention measures should be developed that include parents, teachers and pupils. Especially teachers and kindergarten staff need intercultural training which should include issues like how to deal with the little acceptance of female teachers, especially by some Muslim boys or fathers, how to motivate parents with a migration background to come to parents´consultation days or how to increase the participation of girls in sports and swimming lessons. Traffic education was also named, as it seems that boys with a Turkish migration background have higher accident rates on bicycles on their way to school than other children (Koppen-Brauns, 2003), which was attributed to a lack of traffic education in migrant families. Inspectors of this sector felt a big need for tailored prevention measures in order to improve the working conditions for teachers and kindergarten staff and for the well- being and safety of the children.
One labour inspector described the situation as follows:
“The teachers have 20 children from 20 different countries in their class – the job is sometimes more a job of a social worker than that of a teacher. Sometimes, the female teachers have to have a male teacher at their side when talking to fathers with a migration background. They do not take them seriously, become aggressive. This is stressful and at the same time difficult to address…”
Another inspector of the school sector stated, that the issue of migration was not on the forefront when visiting schools, but that it was only addressed when there was a certain degree of confidence:
„The topic is not one that institutions name first when we meet….Problems related to migration are only mentioned by the way, when walking around the school….then the stories come….”
In the quarry sector, in contrast, less need for action was seen – in fact none of the inspectors from that sector found that there was a “high need to act”. This may be due to the fact that many of the inspectors who participated in the study were responsible for small and medium sized firms in Eastern Germany – a region where the percentage of people with a migration background is much lower than in the West. However, in the companies in the Western parts of Germany where workers with a migration background were employed, more need for action was reported, especially in the small and medium sized companies.
In the administrative sector, high need to act was seen by inspectors having to do with temporary employment, whereas less to no need to act was expressed by those inspectors working with companies where employees are highly skilled, like banks or computer companies. The employees with a migration background, who work there, are well integrated, with German school and university studies and are “hardly distinguishable” from the colleagues without migration background. This also applied to the metal sector, where need for action was seen mainly with respect to unskilled/low- skilled workers with little knowledge of German.
When asked for the main problems that people with a migration background face in the area of health and safety at work, the inspectors answered the following:
Days absent fromwork 8%
Frequency of Work Accidents
Severeness of Work
Accidents 7%
24%
Occupational diseases
Participation in prevention measures
Acceptance of prevention measures12%
57%
59%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Graph 2: Answers to the question: What are, in your opinion, the main problems in the area of health and safety at work and migration? (Percentage of agreement, that the issue at stake is a main problem, multiple answers possible).
According to the labour inspectors, the main problems in the area of migration and occupational safety and health are the acceptance and the participation in measures of prevention, like, for instance, trainings or regular safety instructions. “Safety instructions are either not offered, or they are not understood, or if they are understood, they are not accepted and followed”, as one of the labour inspectors put it. A quarter (25%) of the inspectors also found that the frequency of work accidents was an issue, although most of them said that this was only a personal impression, as in the accident reporting form, migration background is not recorded. The following graph shows the answer to the question: What are, in your opinion, the reasons for the above mentioned main problems in the area of migration and occupational safety and health at work? The answers had to be put into an order, classifying them from the most important (7) to the least important (1) reasons.
Language Difficulties
 |
|
Insufficient |
Instruction/Orientation 0
Lack of professional 1training2
Lack of Know-How 3
Industrial sector that is 4accident-prone
Dangerous working 5conditions 6
Cultural Differences 70% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Graph 3: Answers to the question: What are, in your opinion, the reasons for the above mentioned main problems in the area of migration and occupational safety and health at work?
As can be seen, language difficulties are considered as a very important issue. More than 60 % of the labour inspectors saw language problems as the most important reason for risks at the workplace related to a migration background. In emergency situations at work, warnings may not be understood quickly enough because of language problems. Also, instructions of how to use personal protection kits, how to handle dangerous substances or how to use a device safely are sometimes only half understood and can lead to higher risks of accidents. One inspector reported that due to language difficulties and ethnic conflicts, one company only organizes shifts of people of the same nationality – with the result that there are all-Russian and all- Turkish shifts.
Related to the language issue are insufficient safety instructions or safety orientations at the workplace. Reasons that were mentioned here are the lack of multilingual instruction material, as well as the unwillingness of entrepreneurs to instruct in a way that is practical and which can be easily understood, even by workers with language difficulties. It was also mentioned that many employers do not really test if the safety instructions have been understood. This is complemented by the behaviour of many workers with a migration background, who just sign that they have understood the safety instructions although they haven’t – sometimes out of shame of admitting that they do not understand, sometimes out of fear of losing the job and sometimes because they do not assign too much importance to safety instructions.
Lack of professional training and lack of know-how were also mentioned, as well as working in dangerous working conditions and industrial sectors that are accident prone. Many inspectors observed that the issues are interrelated, as an unskilled or little educated labourer who does not speak good German is more likely to work in dangerous working conditions and/or in industrial sectors with higher accident rates. Unfortunately, it is just in these working conditions, in which the proper understanding and following of health and safety measures are of particular importance - and where not understanding them can have fatal consequences.
Cultural differences came last in the order of importance. Here, the inspectors mentioned that some workers from southern “macho cultures” would take more risks at work and that protection and prevention was by some regarded as being for the weaklings. Also, inspectors observed that due to lack of occupational safety and health standards in the countries of origin, the idea of the importance of prevention measures was not always easy to get across.
The following graph shows in which areas inspectors saw the need to act for the specific accident insurance they work for:
Overcome languagedifficulties 28
Sensitization of crucialactors 9
Collect more information 4
Training 5
Other 14
No need to take action 610 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Graph 4: Answers to the question: Where do you see need to take action in your accident insurance in the area of prevention and migration? (Open question with categorized answers)
Interestingly, half of the inspectors had the opinion that there was no need to do something in their specific accident insurance. This corresponds well to the results shown in graph one, in which more than half of the inspectors saw no or little need to take action. The remaining inspectors are of the opinion that the accident insurance should start to do something, especially in the area of overcoming language difficulties, sensitization of crucial actors, in training and by collecting more information.
With respect to overcoming language difficulties, it was suggested to develop more multilingual instruction materials, especially for safety instructions. Also, the need for translators was seen in some cases, as well as offering German classes for workers with migration backgrounds. Others saw this issue critically, stating that it was not the responsibility of the accident insurances to provide German classes.
With respect to sensitization, inspectors referred to entrepreneurs, company leaders and people in leadership positions who they thought should be sensitized for the issue of migration. A crucial point that was stated was, again, that managers should make sure that safety instructions are being properly understood.
With respect to training, inspectors said that managers ought to be trained to deal withthe issue of migration. On the other hand, migrants should be well trained for the job they are doing. When asked specifically, what kinds of trainings should be offered by the accident insurance, 58 of the inspectors saw no need for special trainings. The remaining 63 mentioned the following areas:
 |
|
Awareness raising among mangers 36"How to instruct migrants" 16 Sensitization of migrants 7 Topic specific trainings 9 Language classes for migrants 6 Multilingual Seminars/Media 4 Language classes for Germans 2 Professional training for migrants 2 Safety Experts with a migration background 2 Training of Multiplyers 2 Research/Evaluation 3 |
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Graph 5: Need for Training (categorized, multiple answers possible). Answers to the question: Which trainings should be offered by the accident insurance in the area of prevention and migration (for migrants, managers, safety experts, personnel managers)
Here again, the above mentioned issues of sensitization or awareness raising of mangers and effective safety instructions were mentioned, together with the need for topic-specific trainings for migrants at risk, i. e. those working in dangerous working conditions. Those who expressed a need for sensitizing migrants stressed the importance to make the German occupational health and safety standards more transparent to them. Other inspectors suggested employing more safety experts with migration backgrounds, yet others suggested basic Turkish and Russian classes for line managers or shift leaders. Some suggested a peer system, in which workers with a migration background that speak good German are trained as safety peers who translate safety relevant issues and motivate workers of the same nationality to adhere to safety standards.
DISCUSSION
The study showed that the need for action seen by the labour inspectors depends very much on the specific area of the industrial sector and the educational prerequisites of the jobs that are analysed. No or little need for specialized prevention measures is seen by inspectors who work with companies that employ well-qualified and well- integrated persons with a migration background. These comprised, in this study, banks and firms like Porsche or BMW, where employees with a migration background havegood qualifications and very good German language skills. Consequently, there is absolutely no need for here for specialized prevention programmes of any kind.
Unskilled Workers with little language competencies
However, need for action was seen by the inspectors concerning workers with a migration background with little knowledge of German and little education who tend to work in more accident prone sectors and working conditions. Overcoming language difficulties, qualified instruction to improve work health and safety behaviour as well as sensitizing managers for this issue were seen as crucial points. However, in the area of language difficulties, opinions were split: Whereas some inspectors thought it would be a good idea to improve language skills, especially German language skills, most agreed that this task does not fall within the responsibility of the accident insurances and should be provided elsewhere.
The role of the accident insurance was seen in sensitizing managers for the fact that there are problems of understanding, especially in the case of safety instructions. Therefore, they should be trained to instruct in a way that is practical and which can be understood easily, ideally even without language. The specific role of the accident insurances was seen in providing good multilingual audiovisual instruction material, such as CDs, DVDs, or flyers or even films and prevention materials that do not need language at all (NAPO, pictograms, films that can be understood without words). This is important, as not all of the unskilled workers have good reading competencies in their mother tongue. So for the target group of unskilled workers with a migration background, the insurances should act by providing multilingual safety education material, easy-to-understand safety instructions and by training entrepreneurs of how to instruct workers with a migration background effectively.
Schools and kindergartens
Also, the sector of schools and kindergartens surfaced as a field where action is needed. Inspectors stated the need for concrete measures for themselves as well as for teachers, pupils and parents, in a way that “schools and teachers are competent to act”. Teachers should be trained in intercultural differences, social competencies and also about traps when dealing with migration, because, as one inspector put it, “.it is a politically sensitive issue, when I raise certain problems, I do not want to give the impression that I am against foreigners.” Another inspector mentioned the need for a holistic concept of prevention at the school and kindergarten level, including education about values which is closely linked to preserving one’s health and the health of others. The inspectors in the school and kindergarten sector also defined a need for training for themselves in this matter, in order to be able to give recommendations to teachers about what they can do in critical situations. Here, the role of the insurance was seen in providing training for teachers and labour inspectors, ideally as part of a more comprising prevention programme that addresses issues of interculturalism and safety and health with the participation of parents and pupils.
CONCLUSION
For the accident prevention work, the results of this study are important. It confirms that workers with a migration background are no homogeneous group(SinusSociovision, 2008) and that prevention measures should be tailored to the specific target group. Having a migration background is not per se a risk, but can develop into a risk if it goes along with little knowledge of German, low education and working in environments that are potentially more accident prone. The language problem can turn into a safety problem when safety instructions in dangerous working conditions are not well understood.
It is also clear, from the study, that there is need for action in schools and kindergartens – yet prevention measures here transcend the question of specialised prevention programmes for persons with a migration background, as they have to comprise all actors in the multicultural school setting. The well-being in schools of teachers, parents and pupils with and without migration background can be improved by adequate prevention training programmes with an intercultural focus. Looking at the results it appears that having a migration background can be a vulnerabilty factor if it combines with other sociodemographic variables, like little education and low socioeconomic status.
As one inspector observed:
“Is it the migration background or is it the educational background? Is the question: How can we get safety education to pupils and parents with a migration background or is it not rather: how can we get education to low-education strata of society? How can we get prevention to families, who do not care very much about prevention?”
What seems to be clear, is that prevention programmes for people in the area of migration background should be tailored to the specific risk group rather than generalized and involve all actors at stake. Knowing the specific challenges and needs can help to design prevention programmes in which cultural and language aspects can be integrated in a way from which benefit all who are involved.
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