There is a major shortage of skilled workers in Germany, especially in hospitals. Workers from abroad could help here.
(Photo: IMAGO/MASKOT)
The home of the 27-year-old nurse Chippy Tom is known as a fertile natural paradise: in Wayanad, a district in the southern Indian state of Kerala, farmers grow coffee, tea, pepper and cardamom. It is warm here all year round.
Even in winter the temperatures don’t drop below 20 degrees. Nevertheless, Tom has just ordered a thick sweatshirt online. She wants to be prepared. After all, she will be moving from the tropics to cold, wet Hamburg in just a few weeks.
Tom is one of hundreds of Indians currently being recruited to alleviate staffing shortages in the German healthcare sector. The bachelor’s graduate spent six months preparing for her assignment in India. She now has her first knowledge of German and has already signed her employment contract.
Now all that is missing is the visa so that she can start her life in Germany in May as planned. “I’m a little nervous,” says Tom. “But I think this will be a unique experience for me.”
There are also great expectations in their future host country: Both employers and the federal government see great potential in immigration from India to close the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. During his visit to India in February, Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasized that he wanted to make immigration easier.
Among other things, he spoke out in favor of no longer seeing knowledge of German as a crucial requirement – for example for IT specialists who could also communicate with their colleagues in English. In the past, the language barrier was one of the main reasons why Indian specialists often preferred to emigrate to Anglo-Saxon countries rather than to Germany.
Mobility and migration agreements for more skilled workers
Nevertheless, India is already the leading country of origin for skilled workers who come to Germany from outside the EU. In 2021, German companies were able to recruit almost 5,300 employees from India – 45 percent more than from Turkey, the second-placed country of origin. A mobility and migration agreement between Germany and India concluded last year is intended to further increase the number.
Around 200,000 Indian nationals are currently living in Germany – and they make up the most successful group of migrants. According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), 58 percent work in specialist or expert jobs.
Among nationals, the proportion in such jobs is only half as high. With a gross median wage of 4,800 euros, Indians in Germany also earn significantly more than the average full-time German.
More about India:
The prospect of a good salary also attracts Chippy Tom. In the first year as a nursing assistant, in which she still has to wait for her professional qualifications to be recognised, she expects a gross salary of almost 2,700 euros. That’s almost ten times what she would earn in a clinic in her home country, she says.
The Indian nurse wants to work in Hamburg in the future.
The professional opportunities in Germany are apparently also of interest to many of her colleagues: the “Triple Win” program, which the Federal Employment Agency operates together with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Kerala, to recruit nurses, has started a year ago with the search for 200 candidates – and then received 13,000 applications.
Also in a second round, in which 300 more employees were sought, thousands reported again. “I have many friends myself who also want to go to Germany,” says Tom. “They’re just waiting to get the chance.”
More: Frustration in India: “The West has broken too many of its promises”