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Traffic Light Union ministers are desperately looking for skilled workers from abroad. But would traveling halfway around the world solve the problem?
“Can you imagine working in another country, for example in Germany?” Labor Minister Hubertus Heil asks future nurses and gets a friendly nod – on the other side of the world, at the University of Brasilia. But many are also skeptical.
In 2022, 34 Brazilian professional nurses will come to Brazil. “Sobering figures” is what the “German Foundation for the Protection of Patients” said during its recent ministerial campaign. Sobering because it can be assumed that by 2035 there will be a shortfall of 500,000 specialists in hospitals and nursing departments alone.
This is the third time that Haier has gone abroad to recruit experts for Germany. This time he was accompanied by Foreign Minister Annalena Belbok, who also promised fast-track visas. Support also comes from the Federal Employment Agency. Since 2022, she has a brokerage agreement with Brazil. Specifically, the agency was responsible for 374 Brazilian applicants from nursing, 43 from technical and crafts and 42 from engineering and IT. The goal is to bring 700 skilled workers to Germany every year.
demand is huge
Measured by the scale of the challenge, however, these are the smallest successes so far: According to experts, Germany will need 7 million additional skilled workers by 2035, simply due to the coming wave of baby boomers retiring.
To do this, around 18 million skilled foreign workers will be needed by 2035, economist Enzo Weber calculated in an interview daily topic forward. The reason is that many do not stay in Germany permanently, but immigrate again after a few years. Weber is an economic researcher at the Institute for Labor Markets and Occupations (IAB), which is part of the Federal Employment Agency and also advises the federal government.
For 12 years, an average of 1.5 million skilled workers have come here every year. And because Germany is in fierce competition with countries such as the US, Canada and Australia for high-quality talent – and not just in IT – that means: recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.
Since the Skilled Migration Act came into effect in March 2020, around 130,000 visas have been issued to qualified specialists and trainees from third countries outside the EU. According to the Labor Ministry, only around 350,000 workers from third countries will have a residence permit for gainful employment in Germany by the end of 2022. There are no more precise figures showing which skilled workers come from which third country. Less than 4 percent came from Africa in 2021, and even fewer from Latin America as a whole, according to the Migration Report.
“Lots of bureaucracy, little Welcome Culture”
According to a recent study by the OECD and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Germany’s attractiveness for migrant workers is moderate. In the case of highly qualified employees, there has even been a downward trend since 2019. The reasons are manifold: language barriers compared to English- or Spanish-speaking countries, the tax burden, and the quality of career opportunities for immigrants: so-called over-qualification rates of immigrants born outside the EU are high. The low acceptance of immigrants here also matters — especially compared to the countries with the highest numbers of recruiters, according to the study. “Germany exudes a lot of bureaucracy and very little welcoming culture,” labor market expert and economist Holger Bonin told ZEIT ONLINE.
Haier certainly knows this: “Imagine we have a really good recruitment campaign and a lot of people come to Germany and immediately put off again because the bureaucracy takes too long – we can’t afford it.” During a working visit, he was more explicit in English: “We want to destroy bureaucracy!” – Bureaucratic obstacles should be removed.
To date, the German labor market has indeed received skilled worker immigrants from Europe, especially from Eastern Europe. But according to IAB expert Weber, as European countries are aging and resources are drying up – people must now look further abroad, to countries with younger societies.
Global Recruitment Tour
Expertise is lacking in every six industries, from nursing to IT specialists. According to the latest figures from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the number of so-called bottleneck occupations rose to 200 last year. Hotels and restaurants have joined the ranks, as have metal buildings and bus drivers.
That’s why Labor Minister Heil joined Development Minister Svenja Schulze on a recruiting tour of Canada in March, followed by Ghana. In Ghana, Germany cooperates with the so-called EU Migration Centre. “There won’t be many people coming, but we have to hire experts. These centers can help,” Schultz admitted during the trip.
Immigrant networks matter
Can these visits by German ministers really make a difference? “They bring something to the table,” says IAB expert Weber: When it comes to third countries, it requires on-site cooperation and the development of networks. Governments can do it, but it has to be implemented at ministerial level on the ground, at the working level in embassies and training institutions.
Most important, however, is the need to build networks, even for migrants who have returned home. They can help advertise Germany. “But they must have the opportunity to maintain ties to Germany.” Weber therefore advocates longer residence permits than the six months currently in effect, as they exist in Canada or France. After working there for three years, you have the opportunity to return.
Is the Traffic Light League behind?
There may still be a lot of screws to turn. The Traffic Light Coalition wants to reform the skilled migration laws that came into force during the 2020 Grand Coalition. A points system based on the Canadian model will be introduced and be able to replace the country’s recognized professional qualifications, which were previously required to enter Germany to seek work. This is considered an excessively high barrier.
But here, too, politics can be behind the times. The points are designed to get people looking for work, but if they do find work, those who arrive will have to meet all immigration requirements again in stage two. For Weber, this is no longer current, as job searches are now done digitally: it’s not entirely realistic for someone to come from far away to see if a job notice is posted at the factory gate. “If you want the points system to be successful, it has to empower you to work at a stage”. Labor Minister Hale may have to remember more often his statements in Canada that he really wants to destroy bureaucracy.