In March 2000, the German federal government decided to issue 10,000 limited work permits, with a duration of one to five years, for non-EU foreign experts in the information technology sector. By calling these work permits "green cards" and drawing a parallel with the USA, the government has added to the controversy of the debate on bringing specialists from abroad to work in Germany. The discussion concentrates not only on the obvious questions - such as whether there are enough (unemployed) specialists in Germany, or what consequences for social standards might arise from employing foreign workers - but also on the general question of whether Germany needs general immigration legislation.
On 10 March 2000, the federal government decided to issue 10,000 limited work permits, with a duration of one to five years, for non-EU foreign experts in the information technology (IT) sector. The number of permits can be extended up to 30,000 in subsequent years, in the light of experience with the initial scheme. Employers will have to prove that they have not been able to employ a German expert instead of a foreign one. Working conditions and pay for the foreign experts must be equivalent to the standard for German employees. The competent authority for the arrangement is the Federal Labour Office, and only in special cases are companies themselves allowed to exert an influence in the process. At the same time, the government will offer 20,000 training posts in this area in addition to the already agreed 40,000 posts.
Background
When CeBIT, the world's largest IT fair, opened its doors in Hannover in February 2000, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder responded to the complaints of the German computer and software industry about the lack of high-qualified employees by proposing an immigration act to makes it easier for experts from all over the world to come to work in Germany. The Confederation for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien, Bitkom) had previously stated that there was a shortage of about 75,000 experts in the IT sector. The Federal Labour Office opposed this assessment, stating that, although it might be true that there is a lack of experts, registrations at individual labour offices do not indicate such a shortage. A spokesperson for the Office criticised the computer sector for being very demanding and only taking on employees under the age of 35 years. According to figures from the Office, there are about 54,000 unemployed engineers and 30,000 electronic data processing (EDP) specialists in Germany at present.
The federal government promised to invest about DEM 1 billion in further education and retraining courses in order to qualify unemployed people in this area. At the same time, IT sector employers pointed out that they do not need EDP employees but highly-specialised IT experts. They emphasised that there is only a small number of these experts worldwide and that many of them have already been recruited by the USA. One problem in the debate seems to be the fact that the term "EDP-specialist" is vague and that the 84,000 unemployed people in the whole field of EDP, supposed to exist by the Federal Labour Office, do not provide what the computer industry is apparently looking for. The Central Labour Agency (Zentrale Arbeitsvermittlung, ZAV) generally supports this idea, arguing that it indeed has problems in finding qualified staff for the IT sector.
In concrete terms, Chancellor Schröder raised the idea of a fast visa system for experts from outside the EU. He made it a condition that only companies which start a "qualification offensive" for unemployed German engineers would be allowed to recruit foreign specialists. Walter Riester, the federal minister for labour, pointed out that the existing regulations already allow people from outside Europe to obtain employment in Germany if this is in the public interest, implying that such recruitment will rise. In 1998, 581 applications to bring foreign specialists to Germany was approved and only 15 were refused.
The whole discussion has been embedded in general criticism of Germany's competitiveness in the global economy and a belief that Germany is falling behind in IT. Werner Müller, the federal minister for the economy, has claimed that while 90% of all small and medium-sized enterprises have personal computers with an internet connection, only a minority really use them. A group of employers in the computer sector, known as D 21, has been involved in the shaping of the new work permit scheme, and according to statements by Chancellor Schröder, this group could create about 300,000 new jobs by 2003. The idea of bringing experts from abroad to Germany in this context responds to the fear that jobs in the IT sector will otherwise go abroad. Mr Schröder said that "Germany must really go online" and that "for every work position which is brought to Germany about three to five new jobs will be created."
The vice-chair of the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), Ursula Engelen-Kefer, stated that the debate on restricted immigration for experts should not become a "red herring" in the context of the July 1999 agreement within the national Alliance for Jobs that 40,000 new training posts should be created in the next three years within the IT sector (DE9907219F). She especially criticised the fact that in these so-called "future professions", the training rate is lower than in other sectors like the construction industry. Furthermore, unions fear that foreign experts could lead to lower pay, undermine the wage standard and - if the scheme is extended to other branches where unions are better represented than in the IT sector– undermine collective agreements. Unions are seeking to intensify their activities in the IT sector, as only 15,000 of the 300,000 employees in this branch are organised in the IG Metall metalworkers' union, and more than half of all employees work in firms without a works council.
Following the complaint from the IT sector of a lack of qualified applicants, other sectors followed suit, stating requirements for foreign workers in mechanical engineering, biotechnology and nursing. The chair of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände, BDA), Dieter Hundt, rejected these demands. He proposed distinguishing between high-qualified and low-qualified jobs. While foreign experts should be employed for the first category, German unemployed people should be trained for the latter. He emphasised that there is no need for eastern European workers to be brought in for the strawberry or asparagus harvest.
Limited work permits
The government's initiative is modelled on the "green card" concept in the USA, where the immigration office regulates immigration according to special criteria such as profession, property, qualification or interest in investing in the USA. However, under the US immigration visa scheme, a special quota of applicants obtain a "green card," which is at the same time a permanent residence permit and a work permit. The quota is also dependent on the country the immigrants are from. The German idea of a time-limited green card is therefore something totally different and more akin to the "H-1 B visa", which is also a limited visa for foreign experts working in the USA.
The question remains as to why highly-qualified experts should come to Germany from outside the EU if they know in advance that they do not have a prospect of living there for a longer period. Consequently, there is a growing number of people calling for longer perspectives, not only for foreign IT experts but also for other immigrants. The federal government is afraid that these could lead to the same reactions as the draft bill on dual nationality for immigrants who do not want to give up their original nationality, which was proposed by the ruling Social Democratic (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and Green (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) parties in 1999. Then, the opposition Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union, CDU) started a campaign against dual nationality, which contributed not only to bad election results for the Social Democrats and Green party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) but also, in the view of some critics, to a social climate which discriminates against foreign people.
Demands for an immigration act
The debate was thus widened to the question of whether Germany needs a general immigration act. Some representatives of political parties and other organisations seek a regulation of immigration which follows the US model. While countries like the USA, Switzerland and Canada have special regulations on allowing in qualified workers according to the situation on the national labour market, Germany has had a general recruitment freeze for non-EU foreign employees since 1973. Canada has installed a body made up of employers, trade unions, politicians, civil rights activists and church representatives, which decides how many immigrants are allowed to enter the country each year. In the USA, employers have to pay into a fund for each foreign expert they employ. Money from this fund is used for schools, universities and training centres to support young talent. The United Nations Organisation (UNO) has assessed that about 500,000 immigrants each year are necessary for German economic progress, because of the decline of the birth rate in Germany. This assessment supports the argument of the advocates of a new immigration act. Others want to adapt the existing laws to economic needs and social requirements. For example, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen has called for a general reform of the Work Permit Act (Arbeitsgenehmigungsgesetz), including the abolition of the prohibition on work for persons seeking asylum, which became effective in 1997. Before this date, these people had to wait for up to four years before they were allowed to seek a job.
Commentary
The discussion on new rules for foreign experts mixes together too many different aspects. First, supposing that the IT sector really requires foreign experts to the degree claimed, it should be possible to recruit specialists from abroad, although the existing regulations seem to be sufficient. If this is successful, these specialists should be offered a longer perspective of remaining in Germany and not a restriction between one and five years. Care also has to be taken that this initiative does not negatively influence training opportunities for young and unemployed people in Germany and that the companies do not seek foreign specialists on the grounds that they expect to pay lower wages. Second, it is not acceptable that existing unemployed people are "shelved", arguing that they are not sufficiently qualified. The idea that they should be trained only for jobs with low qualifications sounds should be countered with "lifelong learning" measures. Third, German society (and its representatives) has to accept that Germany is an "immigration country" which needs foreign people, and not only for economical survival. Therefore, a new immigration act similar to the US model (but without its allegedly racist attitudes) is wise. Fourth, the law that people seeking asylum in Germany are not allowed to work at all should be abolished. Although work permits for this group should be restricted for a limited time, it is not acceptable that there should be an unlimited prohibition. (Alexandra Scheele, Institute for Economic and Social Research, WSI).