Germany needs around 400,000 qualified immigrants every year.
(Photo: imago images/bodenseebilder.de)
Berlin Restaurants can no longer find service staff, bakeries have to close not only because of the high energy prices. They simply lack salespeople. Not to mention the lack of nurses. The shortage of skilled workers has reached a new dimension: It is no longer a question of missing technicians and engineers, it is a matter of broad development – and that is now endangering economic development.
The traffic light coalition has recognized the issue and is working on key points for modern immigration law. Germany needs around 400,000 qualified immigrants every year. This corresponds to the population of a city larger than Wuppertal. Even if Germany exhausts all domestic potential from increasing female employment to extending working life, there will still be a shortage of skilled workers.
But instead of pragmatically pushing ahead with this mammoth task with all his might, the traffic light coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz started a fundamental debate about easier naturalizations. Wanted immigration of qualified skilled workers is suddenly mixed up with the loud warnings from the CDU and CSU against “selling the German passport at a sale” and citizens’ concerns about illegal migration.
>> Read here: Traffic light coalition argues about faster naturalization: “Completely wrong signal”
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What a devastating signal for all qualified professionals from third countries who are considering working with us. Instead of filling the welcome culture with life, it is now about “double pass” and the “devaluation of German citizenship”. That looks like it has fallen out of time.
Of course, we often have the phenomenon of immigration into the social systems. It also needs to be turned on its head.
But one has nothing to do with the other. It is fitting that the Union has even rejected the point system aimed at for simplified immigration of skilled workers. Blocking everything is certainly not a solution.
We have strenuous economic months or even years ahead of us. The lack of workers endangers the medium- and long-term growth potential. Germany must therefore develop a healthy national egotism and, like Canada and formerly the USA, compete for the best minds in the world. In order to meet this challenge, the coalition must set the right priorities: Skilled workers first, easier naturalization second.
More: How to curb the shortage of skilled workers