In a classroom in Chennai, India, around 20 nurses are learning German at breakneck speed. They have six months to become fluent enough to work in Germany.

Ramalakshi, one of the nurses, says her family struggled financially, but still managed to pay the equivalent of several thousand euros for her nursing college. Ever since completing her education, she felt the need to give back. 

"My aim is to work abroad," she told DW. "I want to settle my family financially, and I want to build my own house."

The government of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu funds the language course to fight local unemployment and give disadvantaged families a shot at global opportunities. Private agencies then connect Indian nurses with potential employers.

Workers needed

Germany is desperate for skilled workers, as the country's so-called baby-boomer generation is retiring and leaving the workforce over the next few years, while too few are being born.

Hospitals lack nurses, schools need teachers, and the IT sector is crying out for developers.

Economists at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany, have estimated that Germany must attract 300,000 skilled workers annually just to maintain the status quo.

Without them, Germans would have to work longer hours, retire later— or simply be poorer, IAB researcher Michael Oberfichter told DW.

The role of 'guest workers' in Germany's economic miracle

After World War II, Germany experienced an economic boom that is still described as an "economic miracle." 

In the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, the economy grew so much that the young democracy needed workers from abroad to keep up with demand.

Germany signed official recruitment arrangements with countries such as Italy, Greece, Turkey, and others to secure a steady flow of workers.

Until 1973, when this policy was phased out, 14 million people had come to work in Germany. 

The new arrivals were called Gastarbeiter in Germany, or guest workers, as the government assumed they would leave after a few years and return home. But many stayed and built their lives here.

Bureaucratic impediments

Today, despite Germany's renewed need for skilled workers, migrants face many hurdles to work here.

Zahra, who's from Iran, was initially not allowed to work after she had completed her university degree in Germany. "It took almost a year until I got an appointment to change my student visa to a working visa," she told DW.

Zahra, who didn't want to see her full name published, speaks fluent German, teaches at universities, and works in research. And yet, after more than six years in the country, she has not been granted a permanent work permit and has to check in with authorities every time she changes her job.

"Sometimes I think: Do I want to live here?," she said, wondering whether she should have moved to Canada like some of her friends, who all have acquired Canadian citizenship in the meantime. "I still have to go through this after six and a half years."

Björn Maibaum, a Cologne, Germany-based lawyer specializing in migration law, says Zahra's experience is not unique for foreigners. "Unfortunately, it's the same all over Germany," he told DW.

Maibaum's law firm handles around 2,000 such cases every year, trying to speed up immigration procedures. Among his clients are "doctors, nurses, engineers, truck drivers," he said.

For him, the main problem is understaffed migration autorities which keeps applicants waiting for "months or even a year."

"That's just frustrating. And that's not the message we should send to the world. We're in a competition [for workers]," he said.

Skilled workers and refugees

According to the latest figures from the German Office for Migration and Refugees, around 160,000 foreigners with a residence permit are counted as skilled workers.

However, the office is also in charge of handling the asylum applications of the millions of refugees who've come to Germany in recent years due to conflicts and wars like those in Syria and Ukraine. But due to a lack of digitization, bureaucracy is slow in Germany.

The sharp rise in the number of refugees and the government's failure to bring them into work has lead to growing discontent with immigration policy among the population, and boosted support for the anti-immigration far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. 

Anti-foreigner sentiment is a concern

Kayalvly Rajavil is doing her rounds and checking up on patients in the BDH Clinic in Vallendar, a small town in the western German regional state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The hospital specializes in neurobiological rehabilitation, helping patients to recover from a stroke or an accident.

Rajavil hails from Tamil Nadu and has only been in Germany for a few months.

Speaking with DW, she said that the German language was difficult for her to cope with at the beginning. "But my boss and my colleagues, they helped me and the others a lot, they respect us," she said.

Rajavil is one of around 40 nurses from India and Sri Lanka that the clinic has hired in the past few years — most of them through recruitment agencies that charge the clinic between €7,000 ($8,350) and €12,000 for each successful placement.

Jörg Biebrach, head of the clinic's nursing staff, says anti-foreigner sentiment in Germany, especially cases of racism, is an issue for Indians seeking to work here.

"We are increasingly being asked about political developments, including the different parties," Biebrach told DW, adding that it's increasingly a challenge to make new employees from abroad feel comfortable and welcome in Germany.

Homesickness, family issues, and cultural adaptation are other challenges that keep foreign staff from staying on after their usual two-year contract, said Biebrach.

To keep up in the global race for trained nurses from India, the BDH Clinic now offers an apprenticeship program for young Indians who have just completed high school at home.

That would speed up hiring — normally lasting up to nine months — and avoid the need for recognition of foreign qualifications in Germany, a complex procedure that is further complicated due to different rules in Germany's 16 regional states.

Bierbach argues immigration authorities need to be "faster" and laws more "uniform" for Germany to become "more attractive" for young talents.

"Everybody says we need skilled workers. But we are still a long way from a welcoming culture where everything is running smoothly," he said.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

 

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