“Germans are coming” - this headline recently appeared on the cover of the Austrian magazine News. This time it was not, as usual, about millions of vacationers annually replenishing the coffers of the tourism industry, but about a relatively new phenomenon in the Austrian economy - guest workers from Germany. Many Austrians are anxiously watching the relentless flow of German workers rushing to the Alpine Republic in search of earnings. Most of them are residents of the former GDR.
Recently, the Austrian press has often addressed the topic of German guest workers, and this issue also occupies politicians. That is not surprising, because the army of Germans working in Austria has now grown to 46,000 people and has become the third largest group of foreign workers - after residents of the former Yugoslavia and Turks. As shown by a recent statement by the economics minister from the conservative Austrian People's Party, Martin Bartenstein, Germans have now become a convenient target for accusations of rising unemployment in the Alpine Republic.
The influx of Germans into the Austrian labor market began to grow in 2000, and after the adoption of the Hartz IV social reform package in Germany, there could be even more German guest workers. Many of them find seasonal work in tourism. They are drawn to Austria not only by better earnings, but also by the opportunity to escape the gray everyday life of emptied East German cities. It is here, in eastern Germany, that the unemployment rate is especially high and significantly exceeds the national average of 12%.
In reality, Germans can hardly be blamed for taking jobs away from Austrians. After all, in many cases the latter simply do not want to take on seasonal low-paid work. Many Austrians prefer to work in neighboring Liechtenstein or Switzerland, although this requires them to travel many kilometers.
This situation is well illustrated by the situation in the federal state of Vorarlberg. Despite the fact that last year the strongest rise in unemployment was registered here, local tourism businesses were forced to invite foreigners to work. There are now already 6,000 German guest workers here, about 5% of the total number of employed in this economically weak federal state of Austria. And in some of its regions, reports the newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten, every third worker employed in tourism is now from Germany.
Austria attracts not only workers; some of its enterprises also offer Germans apprenticeships. According to the Viennese newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt, only in Tyrol are 600 German boys and girls undergoing training in Austrian firms. Qualified specialists from Germany also find employment at Austrian enterprises. By hiring Germans, Austrian firms at least partially compensate for the outflow of their own highly qualified personnel.
And yet the growing number of German guest workers is causing concern in Austria. It is not just that the share of unemployed in the country has reached 7.2%. According to the state employment service AMS, it is not yet necessary to say that Germans are “taking jobs away from Austrians.” However, tourism industry experts warn of negative consequences of a different kind for Austrian tourism. For tourists from Germany, they sarcastically note, holidays in Austria may lose their attractiveness if Saxon, rather than the specific Austrian dialect, is heard in Alpine hotels.