Anyone who still had doubts about how overburdened the immigration authorities in Germany need only look to the Bavarian state capital of Munich: 25,000 e-mail inquiries and online applications have gone unanswered there.
It doesn't look any better anywhere else.
In Stuttgart there are 15,000 unprocessed requests, in Essen there are at least 4,000. This is not only unsatisfactory for each individual affected, but also a major problem for a central project of the federal government: to recruit more skilled workers from abroad.
The fundamental realization that this is urgently needed is no longer lacking.
The lack of specialists and workers is already by far the biggest problem for many companies.
If Germany doesn't finally pull out all the stops, it will drastically worsen again in the coming years in view of the demographic development.
The federal government has therefore initiated a reform of the immigration law for skilled workers, which, among other things, provides for lower hurdles and a new point system for immigration.
That is correct and important, because the traffic light coalition is sending a signal to the world: Germany wants to be an immigration country.
But that alone will not be enough.
New residence permits and lower legal hurdles are of little use if specialists from third countries are deterred by months of procedures in the immigration authorities.
They themselves suffer from a sometimes enormous lack of staff, have to deal with a significantly increased number of cases and regulations that are becoming ever more complicated.
The federal government wants to remedy the situation, but its draft law and the associated ordinance lack the necessary determination on this issue.
In addition, it is dependent on the federal states getting involved and finally setting up central immigration authorities everywhere that specialize in the immigration of skilled workers.
Germany cannot afford to wait any longer and hope that things will somehow turn out okay in the end.
It's time to act.