About Welcomeculture & Integration

Successful and sustainable international recruitment of professionals for the care and health economy requires increased commitment, especially from host employers. The majority of internationally recruited nursing professionals are in legally, financially, professionally and socially/family sensitive situations during recruitment and in the first months after immigration. With their decision for international labour migration, they associate hopes and take risks. They therefore need a service-oriented, appreciative and prudent, but not patronising employer.

At the same time, the opening of a company in the care and health industry to the globalised labour market of care professionals triggers profound changes in the companies and their personnel policies. Recruiting companies are challenged to find negotiation processes between company interests, the internal customer structure, the interests of existing employees and the internationally recruited employees and to deal with their own attractiveness as an employer.

Successful recruitment therefore also depends on a committed concept and the measures it contains. The self-obligations and areas of responsibility listed in the Welcome Culture & Integration Toolkit focus on areas of need and interest for recruited carers in which employers can provide support. In doing so, employers should identify how they can find acceptable ways with and for the immigrant employees, the existing teams and their own organisation.

Integration in the context of (labour) migration is generally understood to mean the equal integration of immigrant foreigners into the social fabric of a nation state. In Germany, internationally recruiting companies are confronted with the social expectation to support the recruited employees and, if applicable, their families during immigration. At the same time, the support and intervention options that a company can implement are limited. Similarly, employers must respect boundaries to employees’ privacy and sovereignty.

There are three dimensions of integration that can be supported by companies:

Workplace integration

refers to the integration of new employees into the company’s processes and includes, for example, measures in induction / onboarding and access to staff representation. Likewise, operational integration refers to the further development of personnel development strategies – in particular to counter emerging (culturalised, ethnicised or nationalised) conflicts in a resource-oriented and preventive manner.

Professional integration

which can be promoted in the workplace context, focuses first of all on supporting the employer in the process of professional recognition and professional admission as well as long-term (professional) language support. In addition, employers are called upon to allow their recruited employees to participate in the nursing discourse outside the company through further training and access to specialist events.

Social integration

Social integration, as it can be promoted by employers, refers in the first step to support in relocation management, i.e. support with formal and everyday concerns during and after immigration. In addition, this area also includes support measures through the establishment and use of a community network.