BERLIN: Germany has announced to change existing immigration laws to attract more skilled immigrants as the country is facing a severe shortage of skilled labour.
The proposal was jointly put forth jointly by the interior and labour ministries and later cleared by the cabinet on Wednesday. The proposed law would still need to go through both houses of parliament.
The new bill is part of an inclusive migration package the ruling coalition has proposed to overhaul the country’s immigration, citizenship and residency laws. Existing skilled labour immigration laws were set up in March 2020, when Germany was governed by a grand coalition headed by former chancellor Angela Merkel.
The proposed draft law estimates that it could increase skilled labour migration from non-EU countries by around 60,000 per annum, roughly doubling the pre-Covid-19 pandemic figures of 2019.
The proposed policy would be based on a new points system that considers attributes in five categories.
These included qualifications, German language skills, career experience, connections to Germany (relatives already living in the country), and age.
In December, Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said that people deemed to meet three or more of these criteria would be eligible for possible consideration when first unveiling the plan.
Changes included lowering various hurdles that have made it difficult for Germany to attract labour from foreign countries to fill the historically high number of job openings in its labour market. Berlin said the number of vacant jobs reached 1.98 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, the highest ever recorded.
The proposed bill was presented to the cabinet by Labour Minister Hubertus Heil and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
Asked to elaborate the nature of the changes to the immigration laws, Heil said there were “three pillars” to the new system.
The first was to ensure “that people with a qualification and a job offer — including those who qualified on the job [not at university] — could come to Germany more easily,” he told DW.
The next, he said, was that “qualifications were important, but a qualification that applies in the native country plus a job offer should be enough” to come to Germany and then to square any issues with paper qualifications later.
Germany is often reluctant to recognise international qualifications, such as university degrees, compared to its own.
“And the third pillar was, we also want to give people a chance to seek work in Germany,” Heil said.
As before, individuals with a recognised diploma and a job contract would be given an EU Blue Card that would allow them to remain in the European Union for up to four years. The annual income required to qualify for this would also be lowered from its current levels.
New rules aimed to make it easier for workers to bring their families to Germany as well as attain permanent residency status.
IT specialists with relevant job experience will receive EU Blue Cards even if they do not possess a university degree.
Those specialists possessing recognised academic diplomas or trade certifications would also be allowed to work in sectors other than those for which they had degrees.
Foreigners with enough job experience and qualifications from their country of origin would be allowed to work in Germany even if those vocational degrees were not recognised in Germany. However, those individuals would be required to show proof of proper salary levels as a means to combat wage dumping.
Moreover, individuals could work up to 20 hours a week while looking for long-term employment.
Lastly, it would now be possible for individuals possessing academic degrees or vocational certificates to remain in Germany for up to one year while looking for employment.
