Germany has a shortage of skilled workers that will likely increase as the country’s population ages, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, and Education Minister Annette Schavan plans to bring legislation to the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet in December.
It would call for immigrants’ with diplomas or other qualifications earned abroad to be examined and approved quickly by German authorities, enabling them to use those credentials sooner and overcoming a situation in which bureaucratic hurdles force skilled foreign workers to seek unskilled work.
The government’s efforts to better enable well-qualified foreigners to work in the country come parallel to a newly revived debate on the shortcomings of integration in Germany, particularly of less-skilled immigrants.
Merkel said over the weekend that, while immigrants are welcome in Germany, they must learn the language and accept the country’s cultural norms. The “multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed,” she said.
Still, her center-right government’s coalition agreement, drawn up a year ago, states that “we want to increase the attractiveness of Germany for the highly-qualified,” and Seibert said that pledge stands.
In breaking down bureaucratic barriers, “we want to activate that potential that is slumbering in our country,” Schavan was quoted as telling the daily Financial Times Deutschland. She hopes to fill jobs in science, engineering and medicine among other areas, the newspaper reported.
“We rightly expect from immigrants that they respect our values,” she added. “But on the other hand, immigrants can expect from us that we recognize their qualifications and their readiness for integration.” The new legislation would “send a signal that qualified workers are welcome in this country,” Schavan added.
Also on Monday, Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle announced plans to set up an information service that would allow industry organizations to evaluate foreign qualifications.
Bruederle advocated “controlled immigration,” and argued that Germany is currently some 36,000 engineers and 66,000 information technology specialists short of what it needs, the German news agency DAPD reported.
