"We need you!" Germany to ease immigration laws

Vasily Tushin

Germany needs hundreds of thousands of new skilled workers, and so Olaf Scholz's government is planning a series of reforms to make it easier for them to come. However, experts are already predicting a tough political debate on this issue.

In the meantime, the German media are discussing the statements of German officials on this topic. Thus, the Minister of Economy of the country, Robert Habek , turned to YouTube in English to foreign workers around the world: "We need you" intended for foreign workers around the world.

And Interior Minister Nancy Feiser, in an article written for the Tagesspiegel newspaper, declared that "Germany is a country for immigrants":

And finally, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, presenting on Monday November 28, the government's plans to expand the rights to German citizenship, said: “Those who live and work here permanently should also be able to vote and be elected, they should be part of our country..."

Thus, Germany is trying to combat a severe shortage of skilled workers, especially in technology and similar professions, as well as catering, logistics, education and nursing, a shortage that some industry associations say is slowing down the economy.

“For many companies, finding skilled workers is already a pressing issue,” said Labor Minister Hubertus Heil at the recent Government Skilled Workers Summit.

That is why the Scholz government, made up of centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and neo-liberal Free Democrats (FDP), has already developed a number of measures aimed at modernizing Germany's immigration law.

The measures include plans to reduce bureaucratic hurdles in the asylum system, to make it easier for immigrants with so-called "tolerated status" to obtain permanent residence, and to grant citizenship to people who have lived in Germany for a long time.

Here is a short list of changes that are planned to be made to German law:

• registration of dual citizenship after 5 years, and not after 8;
• access to integration courses for any entering foreigner;
• Opportunity to work in parallel on a study visa;
• recognition of foreign qualifications;
• the possibility of family relocation in a simplified form;
• guaranteed income for newly arrived specialists in non-academic professions.