Demographic change and the retirement of hundreds of thousands of employees have confronted Germany with a major labor shortage, with the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) estimating an annual gap of 400,000 workers that must be filled to keep the economy stable.
In response, the federal cabinet earlier this month approved the framework for creating a digital Work and Stay Agency (WSA), aimed at reforming and accelerating skilled immigration procedures.
According to the agency’s website, its rollout “will take place step by step in the coming years.”
“We want to provide services from a single source in the future. To be clear, currently there are many different internet platforms, but this has made the work more difficult,” Gunther Krichbaum, Germany’s Minister of State for Europe, told Rudaw. “We want skilled professionals, good and experienced workers, to come to Germany, and for this to proceed smoothly without obstacles or problems.”
The WSA is designed to make decisions on foreign skilled-worker applications faster and more coordinated. Krichbaum said Germany is seeking not only qualified specialists but also people willing to learn a profession.
“We need skilled employees in all fields. At the same time, we need a workforce to come here and learn a profession — such as baker, butcher, and carpenter. Without much bureaucracy, those persons can come through this platform and work here,” he said.
The initiative comes as Germany has intensified deportations amid growing pressure from far-right parties that oppose expanded migration pathways.
Christian Zaum, a political figure close to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group, said the party views the new agency “with suspicion.”
“First, we want to put our own people to work, because we have a very large number of unemployed,” he told Rudaw. “Second, poverty migration is currently happening from the Middle East and North Africa, and dealing with persons whose culture is not close to ours is difficult. But we have no problem with a Norwegian engineer who wants to work in Germany.”
Alla Shally contributed to this article from Berlin, Germany.
