Germany wants to encourage immigration of skilled foreign workers

Olaf Scholz's government presented a bill on Wednesday 29 March to relax immigration rules for skilled workers. AP - Michael Probst

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Olaf Scholz's government presented a bill on Wednesday 29 March to relax immigration rules for skilled workers. A first since the 2000s. The country needs to make up for the growing labour shortage due, among other things, to the ageing of its population. Two million jobs are currently vacant in Germany, particularly in the steel sector.

Advertising

Read more

This immigration bill from Germany provides several avenues to accommodate about 400,000 skilled workers per year. It will no longer be necessary, for example, to provide an employment contract to enter the country.

Instead, there will be a points system that will measure the "potential" of candidates to integrate, as is the case in Canada. In other words, having work experience and a job offer may be enough.

Grab the bull by the horns

Migrant workers will also be able to apply for German citizenship after five years of residence in the country. It may even be less, three years, for those who have made great efforts to integrate, such as learning German.

In addition, foreign, non-European workers will no longer have to renounce their nationality of origin, which was a deterrent to immigration for many of them.

With these measures, Europe's largest economy is taking the bull by the horns, because if nothing is done, the labor market could lose up to seven million people by 2035, according to the Institute for Labour Market Research.

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• Germany
• Economy
• Immigration
• Employment and Labour