The German Ambassador to India, Philipp Ackermann, revealed the plans of Deutschland of increasing number of visas granted to skilled Indians from the current limit of 20,000 to 90,000 amid a worsening labour crisis.
Germany Enhances Visa Programs for Skilled Indian Workers to Address Labor Shortage
He said that “With Germany facing a worsening worker shortage, these visas will help fill gaps in sectors such as information technology, nursing, and caregiving”.
One of the strongest economy in the European Union, Germany currently finds itself in hot waters due to the heightened pressure to secure skilled labour to maintain the economic upswing.
The German Labour Minister, Hubertus Heil, said that “Germany views India as an especially important partner when it comes to the issue of skilled labour migration”.
In addition to this acknowledgement, the cabinet of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz approved a series of new migration measures.
Germany was trying to work on the reduction of visa approval time and finally on Wednesday, October 16, the German government gave the green light to 30 new migration measures including the digitalisation of visas by the end of 2024, so as to decrease the waiting time for visa approvals.
From previous period of nine months, Germany has already cut down the visa processing time to 2 weeks and the same is expected to benefit 400,000 skilled workers.
In addition to all the above efforts, the Federal Labour Office of Germany has been reaching out to Indian students currently in Germany to help them navigate employment opportunities.
Also, the language barrier issue for Indian migrants is also being eliminated by the country by providing German language classes for the workers who want to relocate to the country.
All these efforts are definitely in line with the nation’s plans to attract and fill the critical workforce gaps of skilled workers.
Germany Faces Labour Crisis Despite Low Unemployment Rate and Abundant Job Openings
Notably, as per Statista, Germany has second-lowest unemployment rate among all the G7 countries, but despite this stat the country has as many as 701,490 open positions in 2024 alone.
With the birth rate declined to -6.2% in 2023, 20% of Germans are now over age 65, which reflects the fact that current working age population of the country in adept to fill the gap, eventually triggering the labour crisis in the country.
