The program was launched on the initiative of the government and entrepreneurs in 2001. Thus, the publication concludes, the expectations of entrepreneurs, who estimated the country's need for foreign specialists at 100,000 people, were not confirmed.
According to Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor, Gerd Andres, the program proved a success, despite the fact that the influx of foreign specialists to Germany significantly falls short of the scale predicted by entrepreneurs. As the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung reports, within just a few months of the start of the program, by 26 October 2001, 10,000 permits had already been issued. As a result of the subsequent crisis in the computer industry, interest in the German version of the Green Card dropped significantly.
The three-year program, modeled on the American Green Card, is based on an agreement reached in 2000 at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover between the federal government and representatives of German entrepreneurs. According to the newspaper, most green card holders came to Germany from India, with specialists from Russia in second place. 70% of them received work permits in Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, i.e., the states that most sharply criticized the program.
The agreement to introduce the Green Card was one of the triggers for the debate on a new immigration law, which was subsequently drafted by the German government. Despite all efforts by the ruling coalition to get it passed in the Bundesrat, the chamber of states in the federal parliament, it was ultimately declared invalid by Germany's Constitutional Court due to an irregularity in the voting procedure.
As Deutsche Welle reports, at the end of last week Germany's Federal President Johannes Rau called on the political parties to reach a compromise on the new Immigration Law. "We need a new law, especially after the Green Card program expires," said Johannes Rau in an interview with the radio station Deutschlandfunk. The Federal President believes that such a law should open up opportunities for entry into the country above all for specialists in science and higher education, a practice long established in the USA.