In one classroom in Chennai, India, about 20 nurses are learning German at breakneck speed. They have six months to learn the language so they can work in Germany.
Ramalakshi, one of them, says that it was not easy for her family to pay several thousand euros for her to finish her education as a nurse. Now, he feels the need to repay them.
"My goal is to work abroad. I want to financially support my family and build myself a house," she told DW.
The government of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is funding a language course to reduce unemployment and give low-income families a chance in the global job market. Private agencies then connect Indian nurses with potential employers.
street-3321426_1280Photo: Tania Dimas/Pixabay
Hundreds of thousands of skilled workers are needed
Germany is desperate for a skilled workforce as the so-called "baby boomer" generation retires in the coming years, while too few children are born at the same time.
Hospitals lack nurses, schools lack teachers, and the IT sector is crying out for programmers.
Economists at the Institute for Labor Market Research (IAB) in Nuremberg estimate that Germany needs to attract 300.000 skilled workers every year just to maintain the status quo.
Without them, Germans would have to work longer, retire later — or simply be poorer, IAB researcher Michael Oberfichter told DW.
India GermanyGerman Chancellor Friedrich Mertz and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi / Photo: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
Refugees - skilled workers
According to the latest data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, about 160.000 foreigners with a residence permit are listed as skilled workers.
But that service is also in charge of processing the asylum applications of millions of refugees who have arrived in Germany in recent years because of wars and conflicts, such as those in Syria and Ukraine. Due to the lack of digitization, the German bureaucracy is slow.
The sharp increase in the number of refugees and the government's failure to integrate them into the labor market has led to growing dissatisfaction with migration policy and growing support for the far-right, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The role of "guest workers" in the German economic miracle
After the Second World War, Germany experienced an economic boom that is still described as an "economic miracle".
During the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, the economy grew so fast that the young democracy needed labor from abroad.
Germany concluded official employment agreements with countries such as Italy, Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia and others to ensure a steady flow of workers.
By 1973, when the policy was phased out, 14 million people had come to work in Germany. They were called "guest workers" because the government assumed that they would return home after a few years. However, many remained to live in Germany.
Bureaucratic obstacles
Today, despite the renewed need for workers, migrants face numerous obstacles in the labor market.
After graduating from university in Germany, Zara from Iran was not allowed to work at first. "Almost a year passed until I got an appointment to change my student visa to a working visa," she told DW.
Zara is fluent in German, teaches at universities and does research. However, after more than six years in the country, she has not yet received a permanent work permit and must report to the authorities every time she changes jobs.
"Sometimes I ask myself: do I want to live here," she said, wondering if she should have gone to Canada like some of her friends who have since obtained Canadian citizenship. "I still have to go through all of this after six and a half years."
Cologne-based migration lawyer Björn Meibaum says Zara is not an isolated case. "Unfortunately, it's the same across Germany," he told DW.
His office handles about 2.000 such cases a year, trying to speed up procedures. Clients include "doctors, nurses, engineers, truck drivers."
The main problem, he says, is that immigration services are understaffed, so applicants wait "for months or even a year."
"It's just frustrating. And that's not the message we should be sending to the world. We're competing for workers."
Attitude towards foreigners as a problem
Kayalvli Rajavil visits patients at the BDH clinic in Valendar. The hospital specializes in neurobiological rehabilitation, helping patients recover from strokes or accidents.
Rajavil has only been in Germany for a few months, coming from Tamil Nadu in India. "The German language was particularly difficult for me at first. But the boss and colleagues helped me and others a lot, they respect us," she told DW.
Photo: AP Photo/Michael ProbstThe alternative for Germany advocates expelling migrants from the country / Photo: AP Photo/Michael Probst
She is one of about 40 nurses from India and Sri Lanka that the clinic has recruited in recent years - mostly through agencies that charge the clinic between €7.000 and €12.000 per successful placement.
Jörg Bibrak, head of the nursing staff, says that for Indians who want to work here, the problem is the attitude towards foreigners in Germany, especially racist incidents.
"We are being asked more and more often about political events, including the different parties," he told DW, adding that it is increasingly difficult to make new employees from abroad feel welcome.
Nostalgia, family problems and adapting to a new culture of living are additional challenges that often make foreign workers not stay after the usual two-year contract.
How to speed up the process?
To remain competitive in the global race for nurses from India, the BDH clinic now offers a professional education program for young Indians fresh out of high school. This would speed up employment — which usually takes up to nine months — and avoid the complicated recognition of foreign qualifications, further complicated by different rules in Germany's 16 federal states.
Bibrak believes that the migration services must be "faster" and the laws "more uniform" in order to make Germany more "attractive" for young talents.
"Everyone says we need skilled workers. But we're still a long way from a welcoming culture where everything runs smoothly."
Source: Deutsche Welle (DW)
