To tackle acute shortage of skilled workers, Germany has agreed to open its labour market for specialists from non-EU countries, including India, by easing the minimum salary requirement to obtain a residence permit.
The leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partners decided at a meeting here last night that the minimum annual salary needed by a non-EU national to take up an employment in the country will be reduced from 66,000 euros to 48,000 euros.
The centre-right coalition's decision is part of a new initiative by the Merkel government to tackle the acute shortage of highly-qualified specialists and skilled workers in various sectors by making the country more attractive for migrants from non-EU countries.
Last month, the government had passed a bill to speed up the recognition of foreign educational qualifications, which gives about 16 million people with migration background, for the first time the right to get their foreign educational qualifications recognised by the German authorities.
The legislation crossed its parliamentary hurdle when the Bundesrat, the upper house, passed
it last Friday.
Around 300,000 people are expected to benefit when it will be signed into a law by President Christian Wulff. It will enable them to find employment matching their educational qualifications.
Until now, they were forced to do low-paid jobs because their qualifications were not recognised.
The government has been under pressure from the industry and business organisations to reduce or completely abolish the minimum salary barrier and make it easier for foreign specialists to relocate in this country.
They have warned that the shortage of specialists and skilled workers has the potential to develop as a major problem for the German industry in the coming years unless steps were taken to ease the restrictions on migration.
A recent study estimated that Germany will have a shortage of 240,000 engineers by 2020.
The German government was hoping that at least a part of the vacancies for IT specialists, engineers and skilled workers in different fields could be filled by migrants from eight former Soviet republics and former east bloc countries, which gained access to the German labour market in May, seven years after they joined the European Union.
However, fewer job-seekers came than anticipated, according to the German Labour Office.