In 2011, the last restrictions on employment of EU citizens in all EU countries will be lifted.
The federal government considers the forecast of the Federal Employment Agency to be quite realistic, according to which, starting next year, between 100,000 and 140,000 people from Eastern European EU countries will arrive annually in Germany, seeking temporary or permanent work.
Labor migration to Germany will also be affected by the difference in wages and the likely deterioration of the labor market situation in countries that have been most popular among Eastern Europeans in recent years – Ireland and the United Kingdom. This is stated in the response of the German Ministry of Labor to a query from the parliamentary faction of the Left Party. At the same time, the ministry sees no reason to talk about an expected 'avalanche' of labor migrants to Germany.
On October 16, 2010, Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at the congress of the CDU youth organization in Potsdam, said that 'Germany needs immigration, especially to attract highly qualified specialists from abroad.' However, it is doubtful that the 100,000–140,000 labor migrants expected from January 2011 will help Germany move forward.
Yes, the country has a lot of vacancies for specialists – doctors, engineers, and simply highly skilled workers in various sectors of the economy. But can, for example, a surgeon from Estonia or Lithuania, unfamiliar with the requirements of German medicine, step up to the operating table at a Berlin or Munich clinic? And what can be expected from a sixth-class turner from the VEF plant in Riga, if this once-famous enterprise across the entire Union has been closed for almost 20 years and the former virtuoso of the cutter has long since lost his work skills? And which German entrepreneur would hire a Romanian design engineer, who has never even heard of modern technologies in his home country? So we should expect an influx of those willing to take on any low-skilled or even unskilled work. Will they advance Germany even one step in its drive forward?
But one area where a significant expansion of staff is expected, albeit at the expense of local personnel, is in German supervisory authorities. Fighters against 'Schwarzarbeit' (illegal work) will clearly have more work in the coming year.
Sergey Debrer.
