Waking Up to Reality
July 20, 2007
Amid calls in Germany from some politicians and businesses to lower barriers for highly-skilled immigrants, experts say Europe is finally waking up to the economic benefits that these foreign workers bring.
Georges Lemaitre, an expert on migration at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), says that if states want to attract essential workers and avoid alienating already existing immigrant populations, they will need to change public discourse as well as legislation.
"Here [in Europe] you have politicians ready to use the issue for political ends. I'm flabbergasted by this. I think xenophobia exists everywhere, but I'm a North American and there you have a consensus that this issue is too sensitive to be used in this way," said Lemaitre.
"It's something that political parties need to manage very carefully," he added
Party-political football
That could be one reason why Germany's much-touted Green Card scheme, modeled on the American one, flopped so spectacularly.
In 2000, a top politician of the then opposition Christian Democratic Party (CDU), coined the populist slogan "Kinder statt Inder" or "children rather than Indians" during a regional election campaign. The move was meant to stir fears among voters that the planned Green Card scheme would see an influx of skilled foreigners, Indians among them, who would take away jobs from Germans.
In addition to the tight bureaucratic restrictions largely blamed for the Green Card scheme's failure, Lemaitre said Germany also faces fundamental problems when it comes to attracting highly qualified migrants from abroad.
"Language is a major obstacle. [Immigrants] really need to speak very good German if they are to feel comfortable," he said, adding that in Germany's mainly small and medium-sized businesses the working language is German.
"Where is the pool of people who are going to speak German? France, Britain and Spain are privileged in having large numbers of native speakers of their languages outside their boundaries."
Lemaitre pointed out that other European nations faced with similar language problems are struggling to draw top talent from overseas.
"In the Netherlands they're also having difficulties attracting people. They have tax breaks for highly skilled people." he said.
Lemaitre believes the solution is to attract younger immigrants, preferably as students.
Wooing students
The sentiment is shared by the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA).
"We want first and foremost to enable students who have got a good degree in Germany to be offered immediate professional prospects, and their whole families should also have the prospect of staying on or joining them from the outset," said Peter Clever, a member of the BDA executive board.
"This is the only way that Germany will become an interesting option for highly-qualified researchers and technical specialists, because, of course, they want a long-term perspective," he said.
At the moment, entry to Germany for highly qualified workers from non-EU countries is pegged to the yearly salary of the job they have been offered. The threshold stands at 85,000 euros ($117,156), far in excess of what can be expected in most starting positions.
With shortages now being reported in the engineering and electronic sectors, a number of leading Christian Democrats, currently in government with the Social Democrats, are pushing for the salary bar to be lowered to 40,000 euros.
But the BDA says the government needs to do more to address the situation. It is pushing for the introduction of a points-based system, such as exists in a number of major "new world" countries.
Awarding points
The OECD says that Europe is beginning to gravitate towards Canadian or Australian models of managing immigration.
Britain is currently in the process of changing its entire immigration scheme to one based on points, replacing a myriad of different routes to get into the country. The aim is to facilitate entry to those whose skills are deemed of particular benefit to the UK.
Applicants will be categorized in five different groups, with doctors, engineers and IT specialists included in the top bracket who will be able to come to Britain without a job offer. Factors such as youth and previous earnings will also be taken into account.
Europe seems to be shifting toward a more pragmatic, self-centered approach to immigration. Even the Nordic countries, according to Georges Lemaitre from the OECD, have less compunction now than in the past about the impact on emerging or developing countries, where foreign students only used to be eligible for residence permits if they first returned home for five years after completing studies in Scandinavia.
The effect of Europe's push to attract highly qualified workers from elsewhere varies from country to country, according to OECD research.
"There is a serious "brain drain" problem in Africa and the Caribbean. In China and India this is not the case. They're putting out so many people each year," Lemaitre said.