German govt plans to relax rules to attract foreign workers

Worker-starved Germany plans to ease immigration rules to attract foreign jobseekers and replenish its fast ageing workforce, despite mounting public resistance against new arrivals. Germany’s first ever immigration law, to be agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, is eagerly anticipated by industries. But the law, which will have to be put to parliament, risks opening new fault lines in a country already deeply split over a record influx of more than a million mostly Muslim refugees and migrants since 2015.

The German Trade Union Confederation has also warned that the eased access could lead to salary dumping and exploitation of foreign workers. Under the planned relaxed rules, jobseekers from outside the EU -- including, for example, cooks, metallurgy workers or IT technicians -- would be allowed to come to Germany for six months to try and find employment, provided they speak German and can financially support themselves.

More controversial has been a plan to allow migrants already in Germany who are awaiting decisions on their asylum applications to stay if they are gainfully employed and can show they have joined the fabric of German society. Following an outcry from the more conservative wing of Merkel’s CDU party, it was unclear whether ministers would water down elements of the draft proposal, especially on the issue of employment for rejected asylum seekers.

Julia Kloeckner, a heavyweight in the CDU party, has warned amid a heated debate that this part of the package could create “a wrong incentive” for more people to try to get to Germany.