On the Draft Act for the Further Development of Skilled Labour Immigration. Statement of the IAB on the hearing of the associations by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Community and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

Abstract

"The Federal Ministry of Interior and Community and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs have presented a draft “Act for the Further Development of Skilled Labour Migration” which is commented in this statement. Against the background of demographic change, declining immigration from the EU Member States and increasing labour shortages, we estimate that an annual labour immigration of 300,000 to 350,000 persons is needed in Germany from an economic perspective. The current immigration legislation fails to achieve this goal. The draft Act delivers several useful but incremental changes, inter alia reduced income threshold levels for the EU Blue Card and a broader definition of the qualification criteria for the target occupation. Nevertheless, this will not fundamentally change the conditions for skilled labour immigration into Germany, since the main labour immigration hurdle, the acknowledgement of professional degrees as equivalent to a reference occupation in Germany, is maintained. The extension of the opportunities for immigration for job search purposes via a point system will have presumably only limited quantitative effects as well. Larger effects can be expected from the parallel submission of a draft directive for the further development of skilled labor immigration where inter alia the acknowledgement of professional degrees can be replaced by income threshold levels and the so-called Western Balkan rule is extended. IAB comments these changes in a separate statement." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Adunts, D., Brücker, H., Fendel, T., Hauptmann, A., Jaschke, P., Keita, S., Konle-Seidl, R., Kosyakova, Y. & Vallizadeh, E. (2023): Zum Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Weiterentwicklung der Fachkräfteeinwanderung. Stellungnahme des IAB im Rahmen der Verbändebeteiligung des BMI und BMAS vom 8.3.2023. (IAB-Stellungnahme 02/2023), Nürnberg, 36 p. DOI:10.48720/IAB.SN.2302