(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-16 09:34

In France a previous government discussed but discarded plans to help cover relocation costs inside France. But in many other countries such as Denmark, where unemployment is low, there is no relocation support of any kind.

LOST TO GERMANY

In Germany, the assistance is controversial. Economists and industry leaders say paying people to leave a country with a shrinking population and one of the lowest birth rates in the world is a recipe for disaster.

Shortages of skilled labour are now acute in industries such as engineering and carmaking but also loom in sectors such as retail, health care and finance, while "depopulation" has become an explosive issue in some areas, especially the formerly east.

"It's obviously better if they find work in Germany and pay tax, as well as contribute to the state's social welfare system," said Werner Eichhorst, deputy director of labour policy at the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn.

"In the short term, emigration takes people off jobless rolls, but in the long term we're losing workers with skills. It's usually the best and most flexible who leave. They're also often at ages where they have children. They're lost to Germany and obviously their children won't contribute later either."

But Deutsche Bank's chief economist Norbert Walter, who has repeatedly sounded the alarm about the long-term implications of Germany's demographics, guardedly defended the state aid.

"I'm in favor of liberal answers to difficult problems," Walter said. "I see nothing wrong with someone in a difficult situation in Germany being helped to find a job elsewhere.

"It's just a little nudge to help people get back to work," he added, but noted Germany would ultimately need more workers.

"It's obvious that we're going to need a much greater level of immigration into Germany in the years ahead."

Without immigrants from Turkey and Italy, West Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s and 1960s would not have been possible. But many Germans are now going the other way.

   1 2 3   

   1 2 3