Germany needs over 2 lakh skilled workers, plans new immigration law

Germany is facing a shortage of skilled labourers and, to address this issue, it is working on a new immigration law. The new law will grant citizenship after living just three years in the country, according to reports.

Recently, Germany’s Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said the country is likely to face a shortfall of about 2.4 lakh skilled workers by 2026.

“For many businesses, the search for skilled labour is now an existential question,” said Heil. “And our country needs skilled labour, to manage the digitisation of our economy, and its shift towards becoming climate-neutral.”

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The minister revealed that the country, by the end of this year, plans to introduce an ‘opportunity card’ with a points system to fill the shortage of skilled workers. “We need more immigration. We are introducing an opportunity card with a transparent points system so that people who our country needs can come to us more easily,” the minister told Bild am Sonntag German newspaper.

Call for skilled labourers

“With a modern immigration law, we also ensure that more skilled workers come to us from abroad. Together with the companies, we pull all the levers in motion so that the shortage of skilled workers does not slow down our country’s growth,” he added.

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Economics and climate minister Robert Habeck said the country is “on the lookout for people who fancy coming to Germany to bring in their skills, expertise and passions.”

During the government’s ‘Make it in Germany’ address on YouTube, Habeck said, “We welcome people from all over the world.”

“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.

IT specialists, nurses

Germany is targeting IT specialists, electrical engineers, skilled craftspeople, nurses, carers, and professionals from the catering and hospitality industries.

According to Euronews, quoting local reports, skilled migrants may soon be eligible for German citizenship in just three years if they complete an integration course or demonstrate B1-level (lower intermediate) language skills. This is compared to the current five years, or eight without the integration course.

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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, a report on schengenvisainfo said.

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, it added.