The lack of skilled workers remains a major challenge for companies in Germany. In a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) ahead of a top meeting at the Chancellery on the new skilled worker immigration law, 56 percent of companies stated that the lack of trained personnel was the greatest business risk.
A third of the companies have therefore hired foreign specialists from the EU and from non-EU countries in recent years. However, there is a lack of framework conditions to attract specialists from outside.
Germany is rarely an attractive destination for academics from abroad. According to a joint study by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Germany only ranks 12th among the more than 30 industrialized OECD countries. The biggest deficit lies in the rather poor professional opportunities in Germany - especially if the immigrants bring an academic degree from non-EU countries.
A law on immigration of skilled workers is intended to remedy this. The Federal Government, the federal states, business and trade unions come together for a top meeting in the Chancellery. It is about how the new skilled workers immigration law can work quickly. It will take effect on March 1, 2020.
"Quick and unbureaucratic implementation"
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had stressed before the top meeting that Germany relied on well-qualified specialists from outside the EU. The law is intended to make it easier for them to get to Germany.
The president of the Central Association of German Crafts, Hans Peter Wollseifer, described the skilled worker immigration law as a "good law". In the "Passauer Neue Presse", however, he called for "rapid and unbureaucratic" implementation - in practice, for example, faster visa procedures. "We are currently assuming that around a quarter of a million jobs in the skilled trades will have to be vacant, as the companies cannot find suitable and sometimes not appropriately qualified employees."
Recognition of foreign professional qualifications remains a problem
The head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Detlef Scheele, announced further partner agreements with other countries on the targeted immigration of skilled workers to Germany. "The Federal Agency will conclude further partner agreements on simplified labor migration to Germany with other countries, such as we already have with the Philippines or Mexico," Scheele told Rheinische Post (Monday). This is primarily about professions in the health sector.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) had asked the business community for a recruitment strategy on Sunday evening. "She has to tell us in which countries she wants to recruit skilled workers for which industries," said the SPD politician on the ARD program "Report from Berlin". Only then can the federal government support this through bureaucratic simplifications.
Criticism of the new law OECD expert Thomas Liebig. He criticizes that the new law still needs improvements, especially when it comes to the recognition of professional qualifications.
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