Berlin The private nursing employers’ association BPA has just sounded the alarm: while tens of thousands of nursing staff are urgently needed in Lower Saxony, specialists from abroad have to wait several months or sometimes longer than a year for their recognition, criticized the BPA state chairwoman Ricarda Hasch. This is equally frustrating for the nursing staff and those in need of care.
If the federal government has its way, bureaucracy and formalities should no longer stand in the way of employing foreign skilled workers in the future. To this end, the government wants to lower the formal requirements for entry, as Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (both SPD) write in a guest article for the Handelsblatt. This applies above all to the recognition procedure for professional qualifications.
In view of the 1.7 million vacancies in Germany, which companies are increasingly having problems filling, the President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Peter Adrian, believes that policy adjustments on immigration are overdue: “We have to in Germany compensate for the demographically induced loss of four to five million workers over the next ten years,” Adrian told the Handelsblatt. It is therefore important that the immigration of skilled workers also works in practice.
It starts with the fact that there must be functioning diplomatic missions, visa offices and immigration authorities. “It’s unacceptable that you, as an employer, first have to run after the employee at the immigration office who is responsible for the permit,” said Adrian. Politicians are called upon to create the appropriate framework conditions.
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New migration package is to come
The shortage does not only exist for highly qualified specialists, but in almost all professions and for most qualifications, ”said the President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, the Handelsblatt. “Therefore, Germany will need 500,000 additional employees every year over the next ten years.”
The federal government has already presented a first migration package that is intended to give foreigners who have been living in Germany for many years a permanent perspective. Now Faeser and Heil want to get the second migration package off the ground.
Specialists who have professional experience and a degree from their home country and who have successfully applied for a job in Germany should be allowed to come and work. The recognition procedure then runs parallel to the work and is to be financed by the employer.
With the Skilled Immigration Act that came into force in March 2020, the immigration of professionally qualified people should be made easier. However, before they can come and work in Germany, they usually have to prove that their qualifications are comparable to a professional qualification required in Germany. This costs “valuable time”, write Faeser and Heil – and also money that the applicant pays.
The recognition of professional qualifications is considered a major hurdle and bottleneck when it comes to immigration, if only because there are a large number of competent authorities that are not easy to understand for interested parties from abroad.
>> Read here: “Enormous economic costs” – DIW boss Fratzscher warns against insufficient immigration
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the competent authorities or chambers processed around 59,000 recognition procedures in 2020, and 44,800 professional qualifications obtained abroad were recognized in full or with a few exceptions.
The traffic light wants to make that easier
Faeser and Heil’s plans go even further. Experienced professionals should also be allowed to enter Germany without an employment contract to look for a job, subject to two conditions: They still have to apply for recognition of their qualifications from abroad at a responsible office in Germany and have them certify that they are at least partially comparable to a German qualification.
And they have to prove that they are able to support themselves. Then they can look for work in Germany, catch up on the knowledge they need to be recognized as a skilled worker and get a residence permit.
Read more about labor shortages here
The traffic light coalition also wants to facilitate the immigration of skilled workers with already recognized qualifications. In the future, this should also enable employment in a non-specialist profession. A trained carpenter could then also take a job in sales, for example, as long as he has a professional qualification recognized in Germany.
In addition, the earnings thresholds are to be lowered for university graduates who come to Germany via a so-called Blue Card. There is currently a minimum salary limit of EUR 56,400 gross per year.
So far, Germany has primarily benefited from EU freedom of movement. However, the migration balance with the other EU countries peaked at a good 382,000 in 2015 and has been declining ever since. In 2020, almost 158,000 more EU citizens immigrated to Germany than emigrated. However, the corona pandemic was already slowing down migration.
Because immigration from the EU alone cannot be relied on in the long term, migrants from third countries are also becoming increasingly important. So far, Germany has been attracting academics in particular.
At the end of 2021, the Federal Statistical Office counted around 70,000 holders of a so-called EU Blue Card, which can be issued to highly qualified foreigners with a university degree. This is a new high. However, the corona pandemic has also significantly slowed down immigration along this route.
Corona pandemic inhibits immigration
Overall, the annual number of migrant workers from countries outside the EU more than doubled between 2010 and 2019 – from around 30,000 to a good 64,000. Since 2016, the so-called Western Balkans regulation, which was originally introduced to relieve the asylum procedure, has also made a major contribution to this.
>> Read here: “Something went wrong with airlines” – Minister of Labor Heil sees responsibility for chaos in companies
Citizens from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are allowed to accept any employment in Germany, regardless of their qualifications, with the exception of temporary work.
The annual quota is limited to 25,000 immigrants. The regulation, which is particularly popular in the construction industry, is limited to the end of 2023, but the SPD, Greens and FDP have agreed in the coalition agreement to extend it indefinitely.
The corona pandemic has also slowed labor migration from third countries. In 2020, despite the new Skilled Immigration Act, only just under 30,000 people entered Germany who received a residence permit for gainful employment. Immigration alone will not solve the labor problem, believes DIW President Fratzscher.
The economist warns that the focus should be more on women’s employment. More than half of the women in Germany work part-time. Many would like to work more if the financial, family and bureaucratic conditions were better. “Therefore, the federal government must finally focus on removing obstacles to employment for women,” said Fratzscher.
This included both a reform of spouse splitting and mini-jobs as well as massive investments in day-care centers and schools.
More: Pandemic significantly dampens immigration of skilled workers