Just one in three non-EU immigrants said they experienced problems when on the job hunt in Berlin, while in Stuttgart more than half said they quickly found work, daily paper Die Welt reported.

This contrasts with the experience of foreign students who are quitting Germany in droves according to a study last month which showed that even though 80 percent would like to stay, just 25 percent do.

Wednesday’s study showed the worst places in Europe for foreigners looking for work included Portugal’s capital Lisbon, where 79 percent said they encountered difficulties when trying to find employment, and Brussels where 71 percent of those looking for a job reported problems.

“People looking for work in the German job market have a much easier chance of finding work that matches their qualifications,” said co-author of the study Thomas Huddleston.

In Berlin, fewer than 18 percent struggled to work that suited their previous experience and training, while in Stuttgart this figure was 13 percent.

While temporary contracts were problematic for one in five immigrants in Germany, workers elsewhere cited the same problem – and they also reported large numbers of employers who were prepared to take on workers illegally. This increased pressure to take on illegal and thus unregulated and uninsured work.

This was a lesser concern in Germany, the study suggested.

More than 7,000 foreign workers living in 15 cities across seven EU counties were asked by the not-for-profit organisation, Migration Policy Group, about the problems they encountered when seeking work in their resident city.

Those asked in Germany were living in Berlin and Stuttgart – in both cities, just one in four said a language gap had been a major problem. In the giant French metropolises of Lyon and Paris, language proved much trickier, with nearly half saying their inability to speak French had hindered their hunt for work.

German government-funded language courses would seem to be working – with less than 10 percent immigrants asked saying they did not receive enough information about learning German, or had too little time.

In a similar report published on Tuesday by the German government looking into integration in the German workforce, more than 70 percent of employers asked said that the migrant workforce was important. More than 55 percent said they made a concerted effort to support integration.

The Local/jcw