Germany's new law aims to stimulate migration of people with vocational training to the country
This year, Germany is set to introduce a new law that will simplify labor migration from outside the European Union. Deutsche Welle spoke about the expected innovations with Ezan Vallyzade from the German Institute for Employment Research.
–Germany is set to introduce a new immigration law this year. What will change for potential migrants from non-EU countries?
– It primarily concerns three significant changes. First, the abolition of the mandatory priority check when searching for candidates for vacancies. Second, opening up labor migration opportunities for people with vocational training. And third, expanding the possibility of job searching in Germany to people with vocational training.
–What does this mean in practice?
– Currently, the situation is such that, especially in so-called shortage occupations, and depending on the regional labor market situation, local workers – Germans and EU citizens – or job seekers have priority in employment. That is, if a worker from a third country applies for a job, the employer must first check that no other candidates have priority. Only if there are none can the vacancy be offered to a non-EU citizen. In practice, this check poses a major barrier to labor market integration. Therefore, its abolition makes sense and promotes integration.
–Regarding the possibility of job searching in Germany, what exactly will change with the new law?
– So far, the rules are such that only people with higher education could come to Germany to look for work. They had the opportunity to come to Germany for up to six months to effectively search for a job on site. Now this opportunity will be extended to people with vocational training. And this is also a sensible step.
–Is the list of professions that job seekers must have limited? Or does it include all possible professions?
– Currently, this opportunity applies only to so-called shortage occupations; now it is being expanded. The law no longer defines any shortage occupations. That is, you don't have to be an IT expert or another representative of natural sciences or technical specialties where there is a particular shortage of personnel to immigrate to Germany.
–Nevertheless, even with the new law, the need to have foreign qualifications recognized in Germany remains. What does such recognition look like?
– From our point of view, this check poses a significant obstacle to the immigration of skilled workers, especially those with vocational training. Nothing changes in these rules with the new law. The recognition procedure is very complex and involves additional costs. We find this completely inefficient.
For higher education, the situation is more or less straightforward. The Bologna Process has greatly simplified the comparison of educational degrees, at least in Europe. With vocational training, the situation is somewhat more complicated. Especially considering Germany's so-called dual education system (where a person works in their field already during training – Ed.), foreign education is often not equated with German education. The check is carried out by the chambers of commerce and industry of various German states and other experts. The direction, scope, and structure of the acquired education are taken into account. This is a complex procedure. Many do not pass it.
Moreover, people often lack information. After all, you first have to find out how the procedure works. It turns out that only those who have access to certain information and have certain contacts go through this path. At the same time, it should be noted that the new law provides an exception for IT professions. Here, practical skills are sufficient to be employed, while formal education is not important. However, how such a check will look in practice remains to be seen.
–You mentioned the possibility of coming to Germany to look for work, which will appear with the new law. How will this work? Will those interested have to go to the German consulate and get a special visa?
– This is not specifically stated in the law. It only says that entry into Germany for people with vocational training for the purpose of job searching should be simplified. So far, only people with higher education have this opportunity. In most cases, the interested person indeed has to submit an application to the German consulate, stating the purpose of the trip. This also applies, by the way, to trips for the purpose of finding a place to study – not necessarily for higher education, which is already possible, but also for vocational training.
–What other measures does the new immigration law include?
– Various marketing and strategic measures can be mentioned here. These include information policy, as well as promoting the study of the German language abroad, particularly through expanding the offerings of the Goethe Institutes. So that in non-EU countries, those interested have opportunities to learn German at a high level also abroad.