Employment & Labour Market

To date, the majority of foreign workers in Germany come from other EU countries. In 2019, more than 2.2 million EU nationals were employed in Germany subject to social insurance contributions. They account for approximately 6.7% of all employees subject to social security contributions in the German labour market (). However, internal EU migration will become less important in the future. In the last two years, the numbers have already declined and, according to all experts, will continue to decline due to demographic challenges similar to those in Germany.

The Skilled Workers Immigration Act, which came into force in March 2020, has brought about improvements and new immigration opportunities for persons from third countries. This sends a signal both internally and externally that Germany wants to attract foreign skilled workers to the labour market. Despite the various reforms to immigration law in recent years, comparatively few qualified skilled workers from third countries outside the EU still come to Germany. In the task of creating and maintaining a welcoming culture that makes immigration to Germany even more attractive for particularly qualified skilled workers, the German business community also sees itself as having a responsibility.

Any law is only as good as its practical implementation. For some years now it has been apparent that it is above all the practical problems in the administrative implementation of immigration law that at least impede, and in some cases even prevent, more skilled workers from immigrating to Germany.

Long waiting times at the missions abroad, complicated and lengthy procedures, and less than optimal cooperation between the various authorities and agencies mean that the good statutory immigration regulations cannot fully achieve their intended effect in practice. In particular, the introduction of an electronic file in communication between foreign missions, foreigners authorities and the Federal Employment Agency as well as the introduction of a comprehensive inter-agency IT system for labour migration are irreplaceable prerequisites for accelerated and smooth processes. In order to facilitate the immigration of skilled workers and to create fast decision-making processes, the bundling of the tasks of the approx. 600 municipal foreigners authorities of the Länder in the area of skilled labour migration into specialised, supra-regional Central Foreigners Authorities, as provided for in the Skilled Workers Immigration Act, is necessary.