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Nurse in a nursing home for the elderly: net immigration is declining
Photo: Jens Kalaene / dpa
Do we really need a »Day of Nurses«?
So one of these inconsequential commemorations – when the nursing professions are, so to speak, one of the main goals for inconsequential commemoration?
After all, the »Day of Nurses« this year brings two interesting insights from which political conclusions can be drawn.
That might help in the long run.
Insight number one:
The number of people who work in nursing professions has recently increased.
This despite the corona pandemic, in which nursing staff were obviously exposed to a high level of stress and in which immigration from abroad was particularly low.
The Federal Employment Agency announced this on the occasion of the commemoration day.
In 2021, around 1.67 million people were employed in care subject to social security contributions, around 44,300 more than a year earlier.
The numbers in detail:
In geriatric care, the number has increased by around 12,700 to 627,900 within a year,
in health care by 31,600 to 1.04 million.
The increase is distributed among both full-time and part-time employees.
In the past five years there has been an increase in employment of twelve percent in geriatric care and nine percent in healthcare.
That's a long-term trend that has persisted since 2017, and it's more than in other occupations: Across all occupations, job growth was just 5 percent.
However, there is no reason to give the all-clear, there are still large gaps in the supply.
According to the federal agency, specialists are primarily sought after.
For every 12,900 vacancies for healthcare professionals, there are currently 5,400 unemployed.
The relationship is reversed for the less qualified helpers – there are significantly more applicants than positions.
This leads to the political conclusion drawn by the Federal Employment Agency: It is therefore important to promote the training and further education of nursing staff.
Insight number two:
The German health system would already be “on the verge of collapse” if not so many people of foreign origin were working there.
That says Petra Bendel, chairwoman of the Advisory Council on Integration and Migration (SVR).
The annual report of the SVR provides the relevant figures:
Around every sixth employee in the healthcare and nursing professions was already born abroad.
According to reports, more than a quarter of the doctors have a migration background.
So it's not just about helpers.
"Immigrants work at all levels of the healthcare system," says Bendel, "for example in the medical service or in the field of nursing and nursing for the elderly." The number of immigrants in the healthcare system almost doubled between 2013 and 2019.
The value of their contribution is therefore beyond question, and the political conclusion that the SVR draws in the face of a "significant" shortage of skilled workers is: It must be made much easier for people abroad to work here in the health sector and in geriatric care.
How much Corona has slowed down immigration
Processes would have to be accelerated, further simplified and made more uniform, it said.
The various agencies involved - including German consulates abroad, immigration authorities and the Federal Employment Agency - should also work better together.
The Advisory Council also recommends promoting more immigration for training and speeding up the recognition process for foreign professional qualifications.
The Federal Agency refers to the "Triple Win" program, which is primarily intended to ensure that the recruitment of people is legally and morally flawless and that the countries of origin also benefit.
So far, a good 3,500 nursing professionals have come to Germany.
Measured against this, the development of the past few years has gone in exactly the wrong direction, not least because of Corona.
A study by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) shows that immigration to the German labor market - especially from countries outside the EU - has fallen significantly during the pandemic.
According to the IAB, net immigration was around 134,000 people in the first half of 2021, 33 percent fewer than in 2019. The IAB assumes that 400,000 immigrants are needed per year to keep the labor force potential in Germany stable.
jlk/mamk/dpa/AFP