Germany's predicament: Two-thirds of Syrian refugees found to be illiterate with no job prospects

Syrian refugees arriving in Germany. Reuters

A professor at the University of Munich has expressed concern over the high number of illiterate Syrian refugees and migrants entering Germany, saying they have no hope of finding a job and could even force unemployment rates in the country to go up.

Ludger Woessmann told the German magazine Zeit that 65 percent of Syrian refugees fail to meet international standards on basic reading and writing skills and just 10 percent of the one million arrivals in the country this year have a college degree, the Gateway Pundit reported.

"With two-thirds of young Syrians ... regarded as functionally illiterate in accordance with international educational standards, the necessary training to run local businesses is mostly missing," according to Woessmann.

While half of the refugees are under the age of 25 and can still get an education, he said the ability to learn to read and write quickly fades during the late teenage years.

The professor also reportedly stated that the fundamental lack of basic skills made bringing migrants up to speed quickly is near impossible. "Even at a young age, a Syrian eight grade in middle school is five years behind their peers at German schools.''

Woessmann said the Germans have to be realistic about the problem facing them. "We have to prepare ourselves for the fact that majority of young refugees will fail a three-year full time training course with a high proportion of theoretic content,'' Breitbart reported.

Citing reports from the Chamber of Commerce of Munich and Upper Bavaria, he said 70 percent of trainees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq who started lessons more than two years ago have already dropped out.

Woessmann's remarks come just weeks after internal figures from the German Federal Employment Agency have leaked out indicating an alarming status over the education attainment of migrants coming to Germany and the enormous predicted growth in the welfare bill, the report said.

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