Integration of Immigrant Children: AHS Teachers Call for More EU Funding

On Wednesday, the chairman of the AHS Teachers' Union, Herbert Weiß, opposed plans to save in the education system to prevent an EU deficit procedure. Instead, the future government should "go on the offensive" towards the European Union and demand more money for Austria's education system due to the high proportion of students with a migration background, demanded the FCG teacher representative in the "Presse".

Numerous Foreign Students

The challenges of integrating students with a migration background are particularly great in this country. Austria should therefore be declared an "integration policy target-1-region", said Weiß, alluding to the extra budgets from the early 2000s for economically underdeveloped EU regions such as Burgenland at the time. After all, Austria is one of the EU countries with the highest proportion of the population born abroad. Statistics Austria shows a proportion of 20 percent of foreign students for the 2023/24 school year.

69 Million for Integration Area

EU funds for the promotion of students with a migration background are already available through project pots according to the report. For projects of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), almost 9.9 billion euros will be made available for the years 2021 to 2027. Of this, Austria receives around 157 million euros, 69 million of which are for the integration area. Currently, twelve projects are being funded with around six million euros, which are intended to increase the educational opportunities of students from third countries.

(APA/Red)

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