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The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Germany urgently needs to attract migrant workers – it just doesn't want them to feel welcome
Friedrich Merz's government has sent a clear message to anyone thinking about coming to live in Germany: don't. Yet its message to those who want to come to Germany to work is: we need you. This might sound like a contradiction, but it is a revival of the thinking that drove the 'guest worker' programme of the postwar boom years. Between 1955 and 1973, West Germany sought to rebuild its economy by attracting labour, mainly from Turkey but also from Italy, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Yet it did so without giving much consideration to the human needs of the people coming. Repeating that experiment, and the social tensions it created, at this moment would be even worse. The Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) fuelled record growth and labour shortages. Now, Germany's economy is in recession, but it desperately needs people to fulfil basic public services. Above all, it needs them to help finance its mounting pensions bill. Given that Germany has also become ground zero for Europe's heightened sensitivity around immigration after the backlash that followed Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards Syrian refugees a decade ago, it's worth paying attention to how Berlin navigates the issue. So far, Merz is providing a masterclass in what not to do. On the one hand, the conservative chancellor is fuelling rightwing narratives that suggest migration is a threat to the country. On the other, he speaks as the voice of German business and pleads for more foreign workers. 'We need skilled immigrants as drivers of progress,' Merz said this month, at a ceremony to honour the contributions of Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin – the Turkish immigrants behind Covid vaccine pioneer BioNTech. He added that anti-immigration 'ideologies' were a threat not just to Germany's prosperity 'but even worse, their narrow-mindedness threatens the future of our liberal order'. But his government has sent exactly the kind of signal he claims to decry. Germany has continued with a new policy of rejecting asylum seekers at its borders, despite a court order calling it unlawful and a violation of EU law. The border rejections standoff comes despite a dramatic decline in refugees – up to April 2025, the figures were down by nearly half from the previous year. Another leg of Merz's anti-migration strategy is to put an end to 'turbo naturalisation', which allows newcomers the opportunity to apply for a German passport after as little as three years in select cases. The official justification is that ending fast-track citizenship will eliminate a 'pull factor' and reduce illegal migration. But obtaining citizenship and skirting migration rules have nothing to do with one another. Crossing the border as an irregular migrant can be an act of desperation, and at times opportunism. Getting a German passport requires legal residency at the very least, but also involves various hurdles and a significant amount of paperwork. The fast-track procedure is even more discretionary and reserved for people that exhibit 'exceptional integration efforts', such as speaking German at an advanced level, consistently paying taxes and taking part in the community, for example by volunteering at local charities or sports clubs. Eliminating that route, which only opened in June 2024, will have very little impact. Last year – when a rush to take advantage of the new process might have been expected – only about 7% of people receiving German citizenship had an accelerated application, according to federal statistics agency Destatis. But Merz's moves reinforce the narrative that Germany is being overwhelmed by newcomers. The approach bolsters the far-right AfD – a close second in the polls – which has called for the deportation of thousands of people, including some with migrant backgrounds who hold German citizenship. Controlling entry is legitimate, but such grandstanding policies fuel xenophobic sentiment and don't allay the worries of anxious citizens. Also, the political dividends are limited. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion While the fevered discussion around migration has kept it as the top issue for Germans, only 38% of people ranked it as one of their three main concerns, which is four percentage points lower than in April, according to an Ipsos survey. Economic concerns such as inflation and poverty/inequality are the other top concerns. The harder-to-face reality is that Germany could use all the help it can get. With older Germans heading into retirement by the millions over the coming decade, the country must welcome a net 400,000 newcomers each year to keep things balanced and shoulder the rising cost of pensions. But this isn't the postwar era, where Germany can sign agreements with poorer countries and expect thousands to arrive. There's global competition for qualified workers, and Germany is at a disadvantage because of its language and its reputation for being unwelcoming. That's a legacy from the mismanaged Gastarbeiter (guest worker) programme, when Germany had neither a plan for how to integrate the people it lured for work, nor the desire to do so. It also reflects a national identity left narrow and underdeveloped due to its Nazi past. The former footballer Mesut Özil, born in 1988 to a Turkish guest-worker family in Germany's Ruhr Valley, never felt fully accepted. Though he played a starring role in Germany's 2014 World Cup win, he said: 'When we win, I'm German; when we lose, I'm a foreigner.' His story shows how acceptance is out of reach for many. And it's not isolated. According to a recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, between 2015 and 2022, 12 million people migrated to Germany. The study also said that, in the same period, more than 7 million migrants left again. The main reasons were difficulties feeling part of German society. The next blow could be looming. According to a study by Germany's Institute for Employment Research, a quarter of migrants in the country – around 2.6 million people – are considering packing up and leaving. Germany's self-imposed isolation will lead to a slow erosion of the labour force unless it is urgently addressed. Revising the narrative around migration to recast it as part of the solution would be a good starting point. But the political class hardly looks ready. As Markus Söder, the conservative premier of Bavaria, recently told the rightwing media outlet NiUS: 'Of course we need immigration– unfortunately.' Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes are the co-authors of Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Germany's Descent Into Crisis. Both cover Germany from Berlin and Frankfurt, respectively, for Bloomberg News
Local Germany
02-05-2025
- Business
- Local Germany
The five big challenges facing Germany's next chancellor Friedrich Merz
As expected, the SPD's membership have voted in favour of entering into coalition with the CDU/CSU , finally clearing the way for the latter's Friedrich Merz to be elected Chancellor in Bundestag. He should scrape through. Yet between them, the CDU/CSU and SPD have an uncomfortably thin majority of 13. So it will only take a couple of SPD rebels turned off by Merz' recent flirtations with fascism for his chancellorship to get off to a very wobbly start indeed. A full six months since their outgoing Chancellor Scholz torpedoed his own administration , however, and after keeping everyone waiting for weeks, SPD MPs know that any further delay would be political suicide. And that Germany needs a fully-functioning government again ASAP. It needs this government to hit the ground running, too – even though, despite advanced age and personal wealth, Merz doesn't have much of relevance to being Chancellor on his CV. He left politics in the mid-2000s without ever having held office and has only been back on the scene in opposition for a few years. His amateurish antics in recent months testify to his lack of experience. So good old Freddy is going to need some real beginner's luck to get a handle on the intractable problems Germany is facing. In fact, to use a comparison his initials invite, he's going to need to be political rock-star of the order of Freddie Mercury to handle this overflowing in-tray well. READ ALSO: What's first on the new German government's to-do list ahead of summer? Here are the five most urgent files requiring his attention. Advertisement 1. The economy Lacking a track record in government, ex-Blackrock executive Merz has traded on his business credentials. He bills himself as a high-flyer (quite literally: he has a pilot's licence) with an understanding of economic affairs not shared by the bleeding-heart socialists now in his coalition or the dogmatic Greens. Freddy, quite simply, thinks he can rock the economy. But he's playing to a tough crowd. After almost five years of stagnation and recession, growth has flatlined , unemployment is creeping up year on year , and corporate profits are way down – especially in the all-important car industry . Worse: none of these figures take into account Trump's tariffs. Shipping containers sit on a large ship in Hamburg harbour. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marcus Brandt The reasons for Germany's woes are clear enough: outdated industries, poor infrastructure, a decreasing number of hours worked. Also, there is our pronounced tendency to national depression. As one of Merz' CDU predecessors as Chancellor, 'Father of the Wirtschaftswunder ' Ludwig Erhard, once put it: 'Economics is 50 percent psychology.' A real Ludwig fan , Freddie is probably hoping that his warm-up act – that emergency €500-billion package – has got everyone in the mood for take-off and set him off to a flying start. Advertisement 2. Immigration Immigration is another big issue facing Friedrich Merz – but not in the way he thinks. Merz, of course, campaigned as a hardliner on asylum , channelling Trump with his promises to "close the borders from day one". Unlike The Donald, however, Freddie doesn't have the presidential authority to rule by decree (though his new Interior Minister would certainly like him to). Also, his SPD coalition partner, the constitutional and European courts, and neighbouring countries like Poland and Austria won't let him kick migrants out with the butt of a rifle or fly them out to Rwanda. (This is Europe: Italy's Giorgia Meloni hasn't even been allowed to send them to Albania.) Advertisement So having got expectations up, Merz' real challenge will be to not do or say anything stupid about immigration while keeping the crowd entertained. Changing tune will be made easier by the fact that the previous administration has already taken care of a lot of the dirty work: Germany has been policing its Schengen borders to the maximum since last year and quietly supporting grubby EU pushback deals with neighbouring states like Turkey and Tunisia. READ ALSO: How is Germany's future government planning to shake up immigration? What Germany's new coalition pact means for foreign residents As a result of this, our weak economic performance, and the increasingly xenophobic vibes we're giving off, immigration to Germany – both illicit and wholly legal – is already falling. Yet will Freddie be able to resist his frequent urges to play 'Radio Gaga' here – especially when the next random attack is perpetrated by an asylum seeker or foreign-born terrorist? 3. Healthcare Although the matter got little attention during the fraught election campaign, Germany is on the cusp of a healthcare crisis. Don't worry: this isn't the UK, so there'll be no battlefield medicine in overcrowded A&E departments just yet – and no crazy cuts to crucial research like in the US. What we are already seeing, however, are waves of hospital closures and a very serious shortage of doctors . At the same time, Germans are getting older, frailer, and unhealthier – and have a stubborn tendency to visit doctor's surgeries too often and get themselves written off sick for too long. Given the state of our economy, we can no longer afford this, so novice Health Minister Nina Warken will now be charged with making them stick to one GP . Good luck with that. A GP sits at his desk in Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Monika Skolimowska Then there is the new electronic patient record , the launch of which has been hurried along by outgoing Health Minister Karl Lauterbach despite serious concerns about data privacy. This is a cybersecurity scandal waiting to happen – and indeed, hackers managed to breach the system just days after it launched. Another area requires urgent action: on current trends, the Pflegeversicherung system of funding social care will be on its knees by next year. So Freddie is going to need to find another load of free money from somewhere in order to avoid a sheer heart attack. READ ALSO: What to know about the roll out of Germany's electronic patient file 4. Defence On the face of it, Merz has already dealt with this thorny issue: his surprise pre-government deal to ditch the debt brake allows for more or less unlimited defence spending. Seemingly, this secures our plans to rearm and sends a signal to both Putin and Trump that Germany's days of being a pushover and a freeloader are well and truly over. The reality, however, is that even with SPD safe-pair-of-hands Boris Pistorious remaining at the Defence Ministry, the parlous state of our armed forces will still require Merz' executive attention. For unless there is a total reform of procurement, billions will be spent without much to show for it. Advertisement Also, wishy-washy plans to kindly ask 18-year-olds to maybe, possibly, please consider service won't be enough to stop the continued decline in the number of armed personnel we can field. As a self-proclaimed man of business with whom the buck stops, Merz will be expected to personally ensure that we get real bang for said buck – and our boys back into uniform. READ ALSO: What will Germany's new military service look like - and who will it include? 5. Foreign policy One way Merz might well be able to speed up rearmament is by cooperating with NATO partners on a European level: if we all place bulk orders for tanks and shells, for example, the process will be cheaper and quicker. And Merz – who spent a term as an EU parliamentarian back in the early 1990s – looks more aware of the importance of international relations more than his predecessor Scholz, who seemed happy to let Annalena Baerbock take care of foreign affairs while he got on with… well, whatever it was he was doing between 2021 and now. A float at the Düsseldorf Carnival parade portrays German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a sunken ship. Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP As a result, Germany has sorely neglected its relations with close partners of late – to the extent that, last year, they snubbed a French offer of nuclear protection and even forgot to invite Poland to Joe Biden's Berlin send-off. In a sign of his interest in rekindling cross-border approaches, Merz has, as the first CDU chancellor since the 1960s, insisted that his party get the Foreign Office. Nevertheless, after five years of self-obsessed behaviour, Germany is no longer as well-liked abroad as it needs to be. So Freddie will need to get things started with a barn-storming number, here. Advertisement Outgoing chancellors get to request the music the Bundeswehr's band plays at their leaving ceremony. Schröder went for 'My way', Merkel Hildegard Knef's Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen . Olaf Scholz has resisted the temptation to troll the successor he calls ' Fritze ' ('Freddie') with Queen numbers like 'Another one bites the dust' – all he wants is a little 'Respect' by Aretha Franklin . Yet although he is soon to be champion, my friends, Freddie Merz will still need to pull off a real star turn.
