After 30 years of ideological debate on the need to formulate legislation on economic immigration and on whether or not to consider Germany as an ‘immigration country’, the country’s grand coalition government met in cabinet on 19 December and adopted draft legislation on skilled manpower immigration (Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz). The legislation aims to facilitate the arrival of skilled manpower entering Germany from abroad in order to meet the increasingly strident calls by business for more labor. During a press conference in Berlin and in the presence of Ministers Horst Seehofer (Interior) and Hubertus Heil (Labor), the Economy Minister Peter Altmaier signaled that ‘for the first time, Germany is establishing conditions enabling legal immigration.’ In addition, the government also adopted a second piece of draft legislation that clarifies the status of asylum seekers whose asylum requests have been refused and yet who are fully integrated in Germany’s jobs market.
Paradigm shift. Is Germany now an ‘immigration country’? This question has divided the country for many decades and can still spark passionate debate. However in the face of increasing demands by the German business community that is struggling to secure skilled manpower, the ruling conservatives as well as most importantly the CSU have agreed to review their own positions, and, for the first time, establish conditions that allow for legal immigration by skilled workers from outside the EU.
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