1. Examples of Labour Immigration at National Level: GERMANY
First Immigration Policy 2.0 Workshop
February 14th 2011
Dr. Carola Burkert
Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg/Germany
Working Group „Migration and Integration“ 1 1

2. AGENDA 1. Germany - an Immigration Country for the last 50 years?!
2. Managing Labour Migration in Germany
3. Managing Labour Migration in Germany - Results
4. Managing Labour Migration in Germany – Problem areas
5. Conclusion 2 2

3. Germany - an Immigration Country for the last 50 years?!3 3

4. Germany - an Immigration Country for the last 50 years?!
Immigration/Emigration, Foreigners,
Fall of the „Iron Curtain“
Ban on Recruitment
Start of the
„Guest Worker Program“
New Immigration Act
Immigrant driven systems
Point based systems first introduced in CA in 1967,
then in AUS (1989) and NZ (1991)
To be admitted migrants needs to meet a “pass rate”
Typically points are attributed to five criteria
Education
Occupation
Work experience
Language proficiency
Age
Additional criteria are prior work in destination country;
education acquired in destination country, settlement
stipulations etc.
Employer driven systems
Employers are key players. They sponsor
application for admission of a foreign worker
Typically they need to carry out a labour
market test, to establish the non-availability
of a similarly skilled domestic worker
Example: H1B visa program in USA 4
Source: Federal Statistical Office, own graph 4 4

5. Germany - an Immigration Country for the last 50 years?!
Balance of Immigration/Emigration, Foreigners,
Immigrant driven systems
Point based systems first introduced in CA in 1967,
then in AUS (1989) and NZ (1991)
To be admitted migrants needs to meet a “pass rate”
Typically points are attributed to five criteria
Education
Occupation
Work experience
Language proficiency
Age
Additional criteria are prior work in destination country;
education acquired in destination country, settlement
stipulations etc.
Employer driven systems
Employers are key players. They sponsor
application for admission of a foreign worker
Typically they need to carry out a labour
market test, to establish the non-availability
of a similarly skilled domestic worker
Example: H1B visa program in USA 5
Source: Federal Statistical Office, own graph 5 5

6. 2. Managing Labour Migration in Germany6 6

7. Economic Migration across the OECD Permanent Migration, Migration Categories, Selected Countries 2007 7
Source: OECD; Liebig 2010 7

8. Important Types of Labour Migration
2000 to 2004: „Green Card“ to attract highly skilled foreigners
Since 2005: Immigration Act - Possibilities for
higher education graduates from German universities
skilled workers
highly-qualified workers
researchers
self-employed
(family members)
(contract/guest-Workers; seasonal-workers) 8 8

9. 3. Managing Labour Migration - Results9 9

10. Some are more attractive than others….
Qualifications of Migrants, selected countries, 2000 (in %)
Replace middle with medium if possible, not a big deal, if not possible 10
Source: Docquier/Marfouk 2006, 10

11. 4. Managing Labour Migration – Problem areas11 11

12. Factors which reduce the attractiveness of Germany (1/2)
Language is a huge barrier
Complicated immigration regulations
„hard to understand“/“confusing“
„lack of transparency“
„different handling“ of identical issues by local authorities (e.g Green Card – foreigners´ registration office)
long duration of the approval procedure
different counter parts
„one stop government“/approval procedure
What does different counter parts mean? 12
Source:DIHK 2010 12

13. Factors which reduce the attractiveness of Germany (2/2)
Recognition of foreign qualifications
lack of information and transparency
complicated
Employer: bureaucratic procedure
Lack of welcoming athmosphere
feeling: „Not welcome“
stereotypes
signal: restraint on free movement (EU-Enlargement) 13 13

14. Foreign Students: Leaving Germany after Graduation
Third country graduates: residence permit up to one year to enable them to seek employment
2009
graduates (third country)
3.440 residence permits for job seeking (19%) - success?
4.820 work permits for such graduates (26%)
Period of one year: to short for job-seeking?
Lack of network for job seeking
Lack of information/support about
residence and work permit
Scholarship etc.
Do you also have data for other years? 2009 strikes me as a particularly difficult year in terms of the job market. Is this rate higher in years where it is easier to get a job? 14
Source: Bundesministerium des Innern 2011, IW 2011 14

15. 5. Conclusion 15 15

16. Conclusion View of Economic Theory:
- migration decisions (like nearly all human decisions) are a question of
benefits and costs; legal framework is just one contributing factor.
- migration policy can be interpreted as an attempt to increase the
benefits and reduce the costs of migration.
How can we unlock the full potential of migration? Starting points:
information
coordination
networks
transparency 16 16

17. Contact 17 17

18. References
Bitkom (2007): Standpunkte zur Zuwanderunghochqualifizierter Arbeitskräfte. Den Wettbewerb um die besten Köpfe Gewinnen. Berlin: Bitkom ( )
Bundesministerium des Innern (2011): Migrationsbericht des Bundesamtes für Migration und Flüchtlinge im Auftrag der Bundesregierung. Migrationsbericht Berlin: BMI
Brücker, Herbert; Ringer, Sebastian (2008: Ausländer in Deutschland: Vergleichsweise schlecht qualifiziert. IAB-Kurzbericht 1/2008
Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag (2010): Deutschland für ausländische Fachkräfte und Studenten nur mäßig attraktiv – Ergebnisse einer AHK-Umfrage. Berlin: DIHK
Docquier, F.; Marfouk, A. (2006): International migration by educational attainment ( ) - Release 1.1., In C. Ozden and M. Schiff (eds). International Migration, Remittances and Development, Palgrave Macmillan: New York ( )
IW-Dienst (2011): Nach dem Studium geht´s zurück. Nr. 5, , IW: Koeln
Liebig, Thomas (2010): Labour market integration of immigrants and their children. Key findings from OECD country studies and related OECD work. Presentation at the Institute for Employment Research 17. February 2010, Nuremberg 18 18

19. Relevance of regional level:
local immigration authority – residence permit
local employment agencies – work permit
national legal framework – room for discretionary application of rules at local level?
Alien very misleading: wird eher fuer Ausserirdische verwendet... 19 19