Thousands of opportunities in Germany that Arab workers seek to seize in Germany (Getty)

 Berlin -

Germany is searching with difficulty for workers to fill a large gap that threatens basic sectors and services. The number of vacant jobs has reached 771 thousand jobs, amid steps to encourage the migration of skilled workers, especially from countries that the German authorities consider almost safe, and the percentage of refugees from them is very weak, and they are full of great talents, Including some Arab countries.

At the end of last January, the German Minister of Development, Svenja Schulze, and the Commissioner for Migration and Integration, Reem El Ablali Radovan, went to Morocco at the end of last January to start two projects, the first of which related to pre-integration, culturally and linguistically, to prepare candidates for immigration before travel, and the second of which was the launch of a Moroccan center for migration and development. To link competencies and German companies, German organizations and bodies supervise the two projects.

The head of the Moroccan-German Skills Network, Ezzedine Maaroufi, told Al Jazeera Net that talk about truly facilitating the migration of skilled workers is still premature, as the agreement is still in the “declaration of intentions” phase, but he points out its importance, and that Morocco and Germany have previously signed a successful agreement. The year 1963 enabled Germany to bring in a large number of Moroccan workers.

There are immigration and development centers sponsored by the German Ministry of Development in Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan, in addition to other non-Arab countries such as Ghana, Pakistan and Nigeria. Germany recently brought health care workers from Tunisia according to local agreements, and it also recently signed an agreement of intent with Jordan similar to the agreement with Morocco.

Germany recently brought workers in the healthcare sector from Tunisia (Getty)

Skilled worker visa

To facilitate immigration, the Berlin government recently amended visa laws and added a new law that allows skilled workers to quickly reach Germany, which includes conditions, the most important of which are:

  • Obtaining a university degree or professional qualification (with at least two years of professional experience) recognized in the country of origin.

  • For what are known as “regulated sectors,” such as health care, education, and engineering, obtaining a German equivalency in certificates is mandatory.

  • Another important condition is that the applicant must have a clear job offer in Germany or an employment contract.

One of the biggest changes included in the law is that the candidate for immigration is not obligated to work in the same field of specialization. The law will also work in the future to withdraw the requirement for recognition of vocational qualification in Germany.

A spokeswoman for the Advisory Council on Integration and Immigration, an independent institution, told Al Jazeera Net that the law opens new opportunities in the field of labor migration, suggesting that it will not be required to prove that the qualifications of a number of skilled workers are compatible with German standards in the future.

The spokeswoman added that even workers who do not have qualifications recognized in Germany now have the opportunity to come to Germany to look for work.

Job search

Since 2020, Germany has begun granting 6-month job search visas, but among the conditions are the availability of German language skills for those with professional qualifications, as well as financial insurance for the period of living in Germany, which are conditions that are not found in skilled worker visas.

The authorities recently included the “Opportunity Card” for job seekers, which is a system for evaluating candidates, similar to the Canadian system, and includes several criteria, including language skills (German and English), experience, knowledge of German laws, age, and family status. If the final average reaches or exceeds 6 points, the Granting a visa.

But the problem - according to observers - is that the information is not uniform among the official German websites, whether directly affiliated with the federal government or the websites of consulates abroad, especially in clarifying the requirement related to university and professional certificates, and how to ensure that there is an equivalent for them in the German system, or their equivalence in relation to them. For regulated professions.

The threat of bureaucracy

Many of these hopes collide with bureaucracy, long waits for visas, and slow implementation of the law, which frustrates thousands of people wishing to immigrate.

The Tunisian expert in the German employment market, Narges Rahmani, told Al Jazeera Net that the problems currently remain the same, as a number of university certificates still require a German equivalency, and the “Anabin” database, which includes foreign certificates and educational institutions, is not up to date, while the Obtaining a recognized German language certificate is still a necessity, and all of these things take a lot of time and money, she said.

Al-Rahmani - who previously worked at the German Labor Office (Job Center) - adds that a number of company officials are not familiar with the new immigration laws, and they suffer many difficulties in signing contracts with people outside Germany or obtaining an administrative license, as the authorities take a lot of time to verify contracts. And documents, which prolongs visa processing times, and the researcher may encounter rejection, even if his documents are in order.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Advisory Council on Integration and Immigration confirms that the administrative structures of the German authorities do not work optimally everywhere, whether inside or outside Germany.

She adds that workers nominated for immigration are already waiting several months to obtain an entry visa, and therefore if the authorities want to facilitate the migration of skilled workers, they must digitize work and employ more people, according to the spokeswoman.

Digitization

Al-Rahmani does not see a solution for Germany other than doubling the staff in the consulates and exploiting technological development in order to solve bureaucratic problems. She adds that there is a need for other measures, including updating databases to enable quick decisions to be made instead of going through ministries and government institutions, and better communication with German companies and guiding them to the new laws. In addition to the need to give immigration candidates the opportunity to improve their language skills in Germany, given that this is difficult outside Germany.

As for Izz al-Din al-Maaroufi, he says that the success of any agreement is governed by two important things:

  • The first: enhancing cooperation, searching for a balance in the interest of both parties to the agreement, i.e. the country of origin and Germany, and resolving the complications.

  • The second is advance preparation for young people who are candidates for immigration, in the areas of improving the language, learning about the culture of the host country and introducing them to the labor market in Germany.

He pointed out that the Moroccan Talents Association is also working on a project for pre-integration preparations to support talents wishing to immigrate.

However, the goals are not only to fill the need. The German government also links in its speeches between cooperation in facilitating the migration of workers and the recovery of irregular migrants.

Al-Maroufi believes that there is no connection between the two issues, as the number of irregular migrants from Maghreb countries in Germany is very low, but he points out that one of the undeclared goals is cooperation in order for these countries to stop the crossing of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries towards Europe.

Source: Al Jazeera