Germany keen to attract skilled overseas workers

Germany will overhaul its immigration system to attract the skilled workers it needs to drive economic growth, the nation's labor minister has said.

Hubertus Heil told the Financial Times newspaper the country wants one of "Europe's most modern immigration regimes", so it can attract skilled workers to bolster its existing workforce, which is aging and shrinking.

"Germany will lack 7 million workers by 2035, if we don't do something," he told the paper. "And that could end up being a real brake on our economic growth."

Heil said the planned immigration reform will be part of a range of improvements Chancellor Olaf Scholz will introduce.

The minister said the nation was "desperate" for workers and that the relevant legislation will be passed by Parliament in a matter of weeks.

Heil said changes in the immigration rules will let people from other countries travel to Germany seeking work as long as they have language skills, experience, and are younger than 35. In the past, people could only move to Germany if they had already found a qualified job. People will also be able to work in Germany without a German professional qualification.

"It will be enough for them to have an employment contract, some professional experience, and have received vocational training in their home country," he said.

Like many European nations, Germany has struggled with supply-chain issues in recent months, as it emerged from a period of stifled output attributed to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But Heil said the constraints on production have recently mostly been labor issues, not supply issues.

The most recent quarterly survey carried out by the European Union found Germany's shortage of workers was limiting output at 42 percent of its service companies, 34 percent of its industrial enterprises, and 20 percent of its construction firms.

The Financial Times added that a recent study by the German Economic Institute found the country had 630,000 vacancies in 2022 for jobs for which there were no qualified unemployed people available in Germany. The number had been 280,000 in 2021.

Under the planned reforms, Germany also wants to make it possible for people from other countries to take out German citizenship without having to relinquish their own, and for them to be able to hold more than one passport.

Heil said Germany also wants to make people from other countries feel more welcome than they have in the past, when German people were slow to make workers from overseas feel like part of the community.

At the same time, Germany will also aim to bolster the skills of its own young citizens, by offering young people financial incentives to take training positions in companies, so they can learn skills in the workplace.