It’s hard to believe, but a country with Germany’s territorial size is facing a problem common in small nations: the lack of qualified manpower for certain segments. Proof of this is that, in an unprecedented decision, political parties in the coalition have adopted new legislation that facilitates immigration for workers that are specialists in some sectors of the economy. The decision, which facilitates access to the work market by qualified foreigners united parties of different ideologies, such as the SPD, social-democratic, and the conservative CSU and CDU, combating the rising wave of the German extreme-right, who are against the entry of those that apply for political asylum.
The job openings are quite specific for granting residency and a work visa for 6 months: there are opportunities in areas such as computing, mathematics, and sectors such as restorations. If the candidates get and keep, in fact, a job in the country, the permission can be extended, with the condition that the foreigners have mastered the German language. In September of this year, Germany registered 338,200 job openings in the areas of computing, mathematics and information technologies, according to the newspaper Handelsblatt.
According to the project, which begins in 2019, there are limitations to the work visa, restricted to professionals proven capable of executing the functions where there is shortage of manpower. In the main lines of the project, the three parties emphasize that they do not want “immigration of unqualified people from other nations”.
Although in 2015 the Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer (CSU), disagreed with the policy of receiving refugees adopted by Chancellor Angela Merckel, he now acknowledges that Germany “needs workers from other countries”.
It must be noted that the measure, though it opens the doorway to the country, actually limits entry, restricting it to specialized professionals. Thus, the decision of the German government aims to decrease the entry of people, while, at the same time, ensuring that only those who are stable in the work market will remain in the country, combating another of the country’s problems: the high rate of unemployed foreigners.
