Germany’s Federal Government is working on a new law that will enable skilled foreign workers in this country to gain citizenship after only three years of living and working there.
The plan was revealed by the German news portal The Pioneer last Wednesday, on September 7, which claims it has seen the government’s new skilled labour strategy.
According to the newspaper, the key mission statement of the government’s new skilled labour strategy is “Germany must be an immigration country that is also attractive in the international competition for skilled workers.”
On Wednesday, the Federal Government presented the draft of its new Skilled Labor Strategy during the skilled workers’ summit in Berlin, in which representatives from politics, business and associations discussed new ways and measures to combat the increasing shortage of skilled workers. The government, however, did not mention the possibility of gaining citizenship after only three years in the country.
During the summit, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, who was also the organizer, said that for many companies in Germany, the search for skilled workers is already an existential question, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Our country needs skilled workers to tackle digitization and the conversion to a climate-neutral economy,” the Minister said.
The country’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Robert Habeck, also pointed out the urgent need for more skilled workers for the country, both from within Germany and the EU, as well as third countries.
“We have to make education and training more attractive and we have to open ourselves up to immigration much more and promote together that Germany is a cosmopolitan country with interesting and high-quality jobs,” he said.
During the summit, the Federal Government also presented the five focus points through which it intends to reduce labour shortages. These are contemporary training, targeted training, increasing job potential more effectively and increasing labour force participation, improving the quality of work and changing the working culture, and finally, the modernization of immigration and reducing emigration.
According to The Pioneer, the strategy claims that every second migrant worker in Germany ends up leaving due to a “perceived lack of opportunities” or experiences of racism and discrimination, and through the new measures, the government intends to prevent such a thing from continuing to happen.
Last week, Minister Heil revealed plans to create an “opportunity card” with a points-based system which will help the country to shrink down the labour shortage.
This new card, expected to be introduced in the fall of this year, will enable to move to Germany and look for a job anyone who meets three out of the four following requirements: a degree, knowledge of the German language or having lived in Germany, three years of work experience, and finally being younger than 35.
“We need more immigration. The traffic light will present a modern immigration law for this in the fall… We are introducing an opportunity card with a transparent points system so that people who our country needs can come to us more easily,” Minister Heil said, revealing the plans.
A study published last August by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research shows that from July 2021 to July 2022, there was a shortage of more than half a million skilled workers in Germany across all occupations.
The country is also preparing to deal with the labour shortage that will be created after 12.9 million people born from 1957 to 1969 leave the market in the next 15 years as they go into retirement.
Data by Germany’s statistical office Statista show that even if all youngsters aged from 15 to 24 in Germany were to enter the labour market after finishing their education/training, the number would still be very low to fill in the gap.
SOURCE: Schengen Visa Info
