Germany to make citizenship easier to attract skilled labor

Germany, Europe's largest economy, is struggling to cope with labor shortages in many sectors. While experts warn that the labor shortage could threaten the country's economic growth in the coming years, the government is planning to speed up the citizenship process.

Germany's Labor Ministry has prepared a new plan to reduce bureaucratic barriers to immigration, shorten the citizenship process and facilitate multinational citizenship so that the country can attract more qualified workers from abroad. Identifying the digital shift in the economy, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine as the main factors creating new challenges for the labor market, the government sees the solution in modernizing immigration law and improving training opportunities. "For many companies, the search for skilled labor is an 'existential problem'," Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said, announcing a new strategic document to reverse this trend and make Germany "an attractive immigration country in the international competition for skilled labor". "We need to be open to immigration and promote Germany as a cosmopolitan country with interesting and highly qualified jobs," Economy Minister Robert Habeck summarized the strategy's aim. What changes are envisaged regarding citizenship? The document states that the framework conditions for immigration should be improved "to make foreign skilled workers and their families want to live and work in Germany". In this context, it is planned to allow multiple citizenship and to facilitate naturalization. The period of residence for applying for citizenship will be reduced to five years, and three years if certain integration performance is met. In addition to these facilitations, employers are also demanding the abolition of the requirement for foreign workers to have their language skills verified by the competent authorities already in the concentration. Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!