Germans have decided to turn their country into a European equivalent of Canada, attracting educated workers from around the world
As reported by Rosbalt citing Deutsche Welle, the ruling coalition parties have reached an agreement on this, with the Social Democrats initiating these changes. However, judging by available data, the program partly echoes the proposals of the Free Democrats, a German liberal party that in the fall of 2017 refused to join a coalition with the CDU/CSU alliance led by current Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It was the Free Democrats who went to the elections with the idea of finally bringing German legislation into line with the problems facing the country. On the one hand, this concerns the need to attract millions of skilled workers, and on the other, solving the refugee problem by clearly separating them from labor migrants.
According to this logic, the majority of migrants to Germany in the future should be highly qualified workers from other countries who do not pose as refugees but honestly seek work in their specialty. And it is for them that the procedure for obtaining visas, residence permits, and overall legalization in Germany should be as simplified as possible.
This is what the ruling German coalition finally agreed on October 2. The essence of the agreement was explained to journalists by three ministers: Interior (CSU), Economy (CDU), and Labor and Social Affairs (SPD), which, as Deutsche Welle notes, demonstrates how seriously the German authorities take the migration issue and the solution currently proposed.
According to German officials, it is essentially about legalizing labor immigration to Germany. Previously, from a legal standpoint, it practically did not exist. There were refugees and foreigners who either moved to work in Germany entirely without support from German authorities or with minimal assistance (for example, through the so-called "Blue Card"). Now, the plan is to create a most-favored-nation regime for these people if they meet German requirements. At least, that is how representatives of Angela Merkel's government characterize this regime.
Under the new law, all migrants who can present a recognized certificate of professional qualification in Germany will have the opportunity to come to Germany and freely seek work there for six months.
This, however, is where the differences from the Canadian or Australian systems begin. In those countries, migration authorities themselves assess in each specific case whether a particular person is needed in their country. Additionally, visa applicants there are sometimes not only given access to language courses but are also accepted without sufficient knowledge of the state language. It should be noted that the state language in those countries is English, which is more widespread globally than German.
However, the German authorities intend to require job applicants to know German, even considering that highly qualified specialists will likely eventually find work in international or large German companies where the working language within the team, due to its multinational nature, is already English.
The second problem is proof of language proficiency. It seems they do not want to require international diplomas or certificates (i.e., proof of fluency in German) from labor migrants. Knowledge of the language within a narrow professional field, such as locksmithing or carpentry, is considered sufficient.
However, it is unclear who can teach and then test this knowledge? Politicians' tentative suggestions that this could be done by, for example, the Goethe-Institut are not convincing, nor are wishes for large companies to teach German to their staff themselves before inviting them to work from non-EU countries.
The second problem is qualification recognition. With diplomas issued by educational organizations operating within the Bologna system, everything is more or less clear. However, this does not apply to doctors and lawyers, for example, and it is unclear how people in these and similar professions will prove they can work in Germany. This is despite the fact that the shortage of medical workers in the country is very large.
Nevertheless, Germany is taking a big step forward (compared to other EU countries) in clarifying its migration legislation. Incidentally, the law regarding refugees is likely to become stricter. For example, in October 2018, numerous amendments came into force that facilitate the deportation of asylum seekers from Germany.
However, it is still too early to say that the European Union will have its own country that will begin to attract foreign workers en masse and "drain brains" from third-world countries. The German official is known for his love of order and bureaucracy, and it seems that bureaucracy will be the main obstacle to reform. An individual approach to people wishing to immigrate to Germany is clearly not to be expected—standardization will persist and hinder Germany's transformation into a "true immigration state," as some German media hastily called it after the announcement of the upcoming reform.