Skilled Worker Shortage
June 27, 2007
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a study earlier this week which showed Germany had brought in 13,000 fewer legal immigrants in 2005 compared with a year earlier.
Other studies have shown that highly skilled German workers are also increasingly attracted to high salaries abroad, which contributes to Germany's brain drain. In 2005, the United States, Britain and Italy had large increases in the number of legal migrants, according to the OECD's annual International Migration Outlook report.
The decrease in immigration is bad for the German economy, which needs to attract highly skilled workers to stay competitive, said Germany's Education Minister Annette Schavan.
"Germany needs to make it clear that we have a very high interest in foreign talent," Schavan said in a recent article in Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Schavan of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said she isn't advocating uncontrolled immigration. Rather, she wants Germany to become more attractive for highly qualified, skilled workers.
Focus on domestic workforce
While German employers agreed skilled foreign workers are needed, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has criticized the idea. German workers should get better training and qualifications before looking to foreign workers. The SPD and CDU make up the ruling coalition in Germany's government.
SPD General Secretary Hubertus Heil said employing skilled foreign workers is at times necessary. But employers should focus on educating and training German workers. Abandoning German workers in favor of a foreign workforce "would be fatal for the German economy," Heil said.
Schavan said she agreed and believed the current left-right coalition made up of the CDU and SPD has already taken steps to help German workers.
"Even when everyone in Germany is well trained and educated, beyond that you still need qualified specialists from elsewhere," she said during a television interview Wednesday morning.
Lowering barriers
A new law requires specialized workers from non-European Union countries to earn at least 85,000 euros ($114,400) in order to get German work and living permits.
CDU politicians have suggested lowering that requirement to 60,000 or 40,000 euros. Small businesses and start-ups simply can't pay such a high salary, even for highly-qualified employees, said Maria Böhmer of the CDU, who is in charge of migration issues in the government.
"When this barrier is not lowered, the best minds will leave for other countries and Germany will empty out," Böhmer said.