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As reports emerge of German government actively speeding up naturalisation amid huge worker shortage, a new policy is in place to enable the process for foreign workers. According to a I Am Expat report, Germany is reportedly working on “a new points-based immigration system that would allow migrants to come to Germany even without a firm offer of a job."
The report further informed that the German “Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil unveiled the first details of his new points-based immigration system, which he intends to present to the cabinet this autumn. The new system is designed to alleviate Germany’s skilled worker shortage by making it easier for people to come to the country to work."
Additionally, Germany is looking at granting citizenship to foreigners who are particularly well integrated in just three years, as it battles to fill a huge shortfall of around a quarter of a million workers by 2026, according to AFP report. Under a plan unveiled Wednesday by the labour ministry, Europe's biggest economy is also looking at making it more attractive for workers to retrain or take on further education, the report said.
Notably, the country of about 80 million is facing shortages across numerous industries, with the ministry predicting a shortfall of some 240,000 skilled workers by 2026, the report said. Factors including the digital transformation of the economy, the pandemic and the impacts of the Ukraine war were presenting new challenges for the labour market, it said. "For many businesses, the search for skilled labour is now an existential question," said Labour Minister Hubertus Heil.
"And our country needs skilled labour, to manage the digitisation of our economy, and its shift towards becoming climate-neutral." The ministry outlined its strategy to tackle the issue, including improved training and modernising the immigration system. The government wants to make it easier for people to hold multiple nationalities and make naturalisation of foreigners easier, it said.
The AFP report further notified that in future, naturalisation will be possible after five years instead of eight years currently, and as little as three years in cases where people are deemed to have integrated particularly well and the strategy will be presented to the cabinet in autumn for its consideration.
(With inputs from AFP, I Am Expat)