BERLIN – Ukrainian software developers are taking advantage of Germany’s Blue Card program for highly skilled immigrants.
The program’s fast-track system for obtaining visas is one
of the main reasons why Germany is becoming the main destination for Ukrainian
information technology professionals.
“They [the German embassy] only needed a work contract
and a few documents with translations,” says Andrey Tkachenko, a software
developer from Dnipropetrovsk who moved to Berlin in 2014 together with his
wife and two children. “We brought the documents to the embassy, and the
next day the visas for the whole family were waiting.”
Smooth transition
Other Ukrainians who moved to Germany under the Blue Card program
told similar stories to Tkachenko’s. It has become relatively easy to leave
Ukraine over the past couple of years provided that a German company has
offered a job with a yearly salary of about €38,000, or up to €48,400 for some
occupations.
Other benefits of Blue Card include receiving indefinite
permission to remain in Germany. Unlike the United States, where in most cases
the immigrant’s spouse isn’t allowed to work, Germany gives the Blue Card
recipient’s spouse a work permit right away.
“My wife is a medical doctor, and she was able to learn
the language and find a job,” says Viktor Malyi, who left Ukraine in 2012
to work in Garmin’s research and development office in Würzburg.
Why leave?
People who left before Russia’s war against Ukraine started
early in 2014 most often say they wanted to live in a European country for a
while, or to find more interesting work abroad.
Tkachenko, however, bluntly says why he left: “The
war.”
Other also appear to have found what they looked for.
“My work has become more interesting,” says Anton
Voitovych, a software engineer at PayPal, who moved to Berlin in 2013. “I
used to work on integration of payment systems in Magento (a popular e-commerce
platform) and always wanted to see how it works from the inside.”
As for everyday life, Berlin appears to be the most
comfortable place in Germany for Ukrainians.
“Berlin is a very easy entry point for our
mentality,” says Tkachenko. “I’ve never had any issues due to not
being able to speak German, but maybe I’m just lucky.”
“I definitely like Berlin,” Voitovych says.
“The Germans say that Berlin is not Germany, and I agree. For me it’s the
golden mean between the Germany we read about in the books, where everything is
strict and no one crosses the street against a red light, and Ukraine.”
The good, the bad
There’s still some things that don’t chime for some
Ukrainian immigrants.
In addition to predictable issues related to house-hunting,
which may take a couple of months, it’s the financial aspect. In many, if not
most, cases, the after-tax salary of a software developer in Germany won’t be
much higher than in Ukraine, while the cost of living is significantly more.
Moreover, trust issues are a concern. Ukrainian managers
struggle to gain the same level of trust that their German counterparts
receive.
There is, however, an opposite opinion as well. Alexander
Korotkikh, who moved to Hamburg in 2014 to continue his work at Kreditech, has
since become vice president of engineering.
“It’s a multinational company, we have employees coming
from about 40 countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Poland and so on,” he says.
No burnt bridges
Despite all the benefits of working and living in Germany in
comparison to Ukraine, four out of five people with whom the Kyiv Post spoke
said that at least theoretically, they want to come back home at some point.
“If not for the war, I wouldn’t have moved in the first
place,” says Tkachenko.
“Initially we planned to be back in Ukraine after two
years but then we decided to wait,” adds Voitovych. “I wouldn’t want
to go back now and put my family at risk. It’s important for us to see that the
country is moving in the right direction.”
Andrii Degeler can be
reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Looksery, Ciklum, Steltec Capital and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
