Germany Passes New Immigration Law to Meet Record Labor Shortages

While most western countries are searching for ways to crack down on immigration, Germany recently passed a new immigration bill that seeks to attract more skilled workers from outside the EU in an attempt to remedy its record high labor shortages.

On the one hand, Germany’s labor shortages are seen as a good thing as employment rates are through the roof, but it also leaves a vacuum for over a million work positions around Europe’s largest economy.

Combine that with Germany’s aging population and low birth rates and the problem because much, much worse and could see the country’s economic growth rate stagnate significantly.

The new immigration measure though, passed by centrist Angela Merkel and backed by both the hardline and social democratic parties, will encourage skilled foreign workers to migrate to Germany by removing key labor law hurdles and by providing German language skills.

But the backers of the new immigration law are making sure to emphasize that they want skilled workers coming into the country rather than more refugees or asylum seekers.

Since 2015, Germany has accepted over one million refugees from the Middle East, which has angered many in the country and led to the far-right seizing significant control in the country’s parliament.

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