Kubilay Dertli has experienced first-hand how attitudes toward immigrants in German authorities have changed over the past few decades.

In the 1990s, the now forty-year-old came to Hamburg from Turkey as a minor refugee.

He quickly became the one in his family with the best knowledge of German.

He did administrative work for his relatives.

At that time, he says, the atmosphere that greeted him as a migrant in the offices was much more negative.

Alexander Wulfers

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Today, the officials responsible are much more open in many places, reports Dertli.

A hopeful value in times when Germany simply can no longer afford to be negative towards immigrants.

There is a shortage of workers in every corner of the country.

Since the corona pandemic shook up the labor market, the shortage of skilled workers has hit the economy with full force.

Many companies have long had to turn down orders or limit their opening times because they don't have enough staff.

Politicians and companies are largely in agreement that immigration should play a part in solving this problem.

Kubilay Dertli turned it into a business, and one that is currently booming.

He is in the process of expanding his team because he can no longer handle the order situation on his own.

Dertli is an integration manager and HR consultant.

This means that companies turn to him when they are unsuccessfully looking for skilled workers on the labor market within the EU.

Dertli then finds suitable personnel in Turkey, places Turkish job advertisements, takes care of overcoming bureaucratic hurdles and accompanies the newcomers in Germany so that they can find their way in their new everyday life.

In the regular procedure, a whole year can pass

He started doing this in 2019. At first, many employers smiled at him, he says.

"None of the medium-sized companies I spoke to at the time had the feeling that you had to think about third countries." Instead, the main focus was on immigration from EU countries.

Then came the pandemic, short-time work, closed borders.

For a short time, immigration hardly played a role.

It looks very different today.

Dertli says he no longer needs to advertise.

The orders come by themselves.

Dertli's everyday life has little to do with the snap action in which the federal government wanted to recruit thousands of airport helpers from Turkey this summer.

In the end, hardly anyone came.

The airports declined, the supply of workers did not match the demand.

It is still unclear who wanted to mediate the many porters.

In any case, it wasn't Dertli, nor was it a colleague he knew.