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New rules in Germany effective from January 1 will make entering andstaying in Germany easier for skilled migrants, while keeping tightrestrictions on unskilled immigration, the broadcaster Deutsche Welle(DE) reports
According to DE, the new law is the result of acompromise between the German government and opposition, and tries toaddress two conflicting economic issues. On the one hand, it continuesa process of liberalizing migration for skilled workers who are neededdue to Germany's ageing population and shortage of skilled workers,especially in information technology.On the other hand, with one of the highest unemployment rates in theEU, many politicians don't want to allow unrestricted access forimmigrants.
Accordingly, life will be easier for highly qualified immigrants. Under German green cardrules introduced in 2000, foreign IT experts had to leave Germany afterfive years, but now they will be allowed to remain permanently. Also,foreigners graduating from German universities will be able to look forwork over one year if they wish to remain. Another innovation isallowing immigration for persons investing at least 1 million euros andemploying ten workers. And to reduce bureaucracy, potential immigrantswill be able to obtain their work and residence permits at onelocation, such as the German embassy in their home country.
Onthe other hand, citizens of countries from outside the European Unionwill still not be allowed to perform simple jobs, unless they aresubject to special regulations such as seasonal contracts. And theseven-year restriction on the free movement of labour for the tencountries that joined the EU in May 2004 will remain in place.
Inresponse to claims that newcomers are not integrating into Germany, thegovernment has allocated 200 million euros for state-funded Germanlanguage courses for all immigrants. This service was previouslyavailable only to ethnic Germans emigrating from the former SovietUnion. But this group will now have to pass a language test beforebeing allowed to settle in Germany.
