German industrial associations are reporting a marked shortage of blue collar workers in certain sectors to keep up with rising demand. On June 8, Ludwig Gerhard Braun, President of the country's Chambers of Industry and Commerce, went on the record to demand the economy open itself to qualified migrants as a part of a comprehensive initiative to address this newly arising gap.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile quotes one of the country's leading economic research institutes, which estimates that the country is 48,000 missing engineers, whose absence last year cost Germany about €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion) in lost annual output.
This is somewhat of a watershed moment for Germany, as foreign labor has not been so in demand since the early ’50s and ’60s. Braun and fellow industrialists demand that politicians facilitate circumstances for highly-qualified migrants to enter the country. They also want to see the earnings threshold lowered: currently highly qualified migrants must prove that they make over 85,500 Euros a year.
The issue drives a wedge right down the center of the government coalition, but surprisingly the majority of Conservative ministers are in favor of a shift. Education minister, Annette Schavan, has promised a program to lower the wage requirements to 40,000 to 60,000 Euros to encourage highly educated migrants to either remain in Germany after finishing their degree programs or to attract the most talented engineers and scientists from the international labor market. Her conservative colleague and Economics minister, Michael Glos, has her back and his ministerial minions are currently preparing a similar analysis.
Just how far these two will get within their coalition government remains to be seen, however, as both the Social Democrat Employment Minister and Christian Democrat Interior Minister are less convinced that increased migration will offer the necessary quick fix the economy seemingly wants. German news weekly, der Spiegel, highlights that structural problems in the German labor market are part of the reason some highly skilled natives are sitting at home unemployed, while less and less German teenagers are attracted into blue collar jobs. The country is alos losing a lot of potential through the longstanding inadequacies in educating second and third generation migrants and preparing them adequatelz for the demands of the German labor market.
Thus, the solution – as always – lies somewhat in between. In a country that still boasts a 3.8 million unemployment figure, a decision to ‘open the doors to migrants’ looks likely to be met with the type of public outcry that has so often put a stop to comprehensive migration policies. At the same time, the effects of demographic change are already being felt in Europe's most populous economy. The country needs a more flexible overall labor market that allows for the kind of rotating system currently being discussed at EU level. This system would allow highly-qualified migrants the chance to exit and enter the European labor market with greater ease. There is no reason why comprehensive strategies cannot be developed alongside one another – in fact, they must be, in order to respond to changing labor market needs. The education of young migrants must be part and parcel of this thought process much as creative solutions of encouraging the older generation to remain employed for longer, passing on their skills to the younger generation. Education and training must programs must be developed in line with micr- and macro-economic development. And above all, these plans need to be communicated early – to prevent and actively address concerns, because apart from any monetary incentives, migrants need to feel welcome, even if they don't plan to stay forever.
