During their trip to Canada, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil want to talk to government representatives in Ottawa about the prerequisites for better management of labor immigration. Today and tomorrow, the two SPD ministers also want to get suggestions from companies and from experts for integration for their planned reform of the immigration law for skilled workers, which is to be passed by the cabinet soon.
In Canada, among other forms of labor migration, there is a system designed to determine the likelihood that a foreigner will be able to find a job once they arrive – ideally in an area where there is currently a shortage. When applying for a work visa using the points system, age, language skills and professional experience are taken into account in addition to education.
“Reasonably modernize immigration law”
In addition to Heil and Faeser, there are members of the Bundestag’s interior committee in Canada who want to prepare for the deliberations on the bill. “We will decisively modernize our immigration law, in particular by introducing a point system based on the Canadian model,” said FDP domestic politician Ann-Veruschka Jurisch. She wants simplified procedures: “Our new labor immigration law will then develop its full impact if we implement it with better and fully digitized procedures. Canada is already showing us that.”
Opportunities for workers wishing to immigrate to Canada have changed several times over the past few decades. The applicable rules are strongly based on the current needs of the labor market. However, it often happens that migrant workers ultimately do not find a job that matches their qualifications.
There are two types of foreign worker residency permits in Canada: the open work permit, which is not tied to an employer, location or specific job, and the closed work permit, which is only a pre-determined job for a specific employer in a specific location permitted.
prevent wage dumping
Faeser and Heil suggest that in future it should be sufficient if someone can prove their qualification for a non-regulated profession through a foreign professional or university degree and professional experience. The formal recognition of the foreign vocational qualification should no longer be necessary. In order to prevent wage dumping, however, a “salary threshold” should be observed or the employer must be bound by collective bargaining agreements.
Anyone who wants to have their foreign professional qualification recognized in Germany will have the option of starting this only after they have entered the country.
The skilled workers immigration law of the black-red federal government came into force in March 2020. Due to the travel restrictions to contain the corona pandemic, the new law was initially unable to take effect. In 2019, almost 25,000 low-skilled workers and around 39,000 skilled workers came to Germany to work. The Union criticizes the reform plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP. She considers advertising campaigns abroad and the establishment of a federal agency for immigration to be more effective.
