Germany: Government paves way for European Green Card system
01 June 2000
The Minister of State Hans Martin Bury (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SDP) has announced the basic conditions under which the new labour immigration system is to work. This follows months of controversy over allowing foreign computer specialists to work in Germany for a limited period under a system similar to that used in the US.
The work permit scheme is scheduled to be introduced in August and permits will be issued for three years, with the possibility of a two year extension. The applicant is allowed to change their place of work but will be expected to earn at least 100,000 DM (£33,000) a year. Close relatives will now be allowed to join the applicants, but not allowed to work for at least two years. The system is limited to computer specialists and has not yet been extended to other branches of industry.
So far, there is no legal basis for this "arrangement", the details of which were worked out at a meeting on 2 May between the Federal Chancellery, the board of directors of the industry initiative "D21", the president of the Federal Labour Institute as well as the permanent secretaries of the relevant ministries. The FDP (Freiheitlich Demohratische Partei Deutschlands) had previously proposed a draft law regulating immigration with a yearly quota system granting permits according to "national and economic interest". However, this was rejected by the Bundestag in 1998. More recently, the Secretary of State, Cornelie Sonntag-Wolgast, conceded that under the Amsterdam Treaty, a new law would have to fall within the framework of the EU. Although the spokesman for the SDP fraction in parliament Dieter Wiefelsputz, commented that there would not be an immigration law until at least 2002, this recent change in policy with regards to the immigration of skilled labour points to wider developments within the EU.
National industry representatives have long called for a more open and flexible regulation of immigration in order to meet labour market demands. However, EU ministers have been reluctant to change immigration laws, which currently make it impossible for most immigrants to enter the EU via legal means (although people who enter the EU from the "white list" of countries -USA, Canada, Australia, Japan etc - on visas often overstay and settle). At a conference entitled The Fight Against Clandestine Entry Networks organised by the French government on 21 July it was proposed that the EU should welcome skilled migrants - rather than representing a progressive approach to migration this would only serve the interests of EU states, not those of refugees and asylum-seekers.
Early discussions about changing immigration laws in Germany triggered outbursts of xenophobic nationalism among conservative, but also liberal Ministers. The priority in their view, is to think of a way to exclude the permanent settlement of foreigners. As the Hessian CDU Interior Minister pointed out: "the computer people do not come on their own, they have family." After initial plans to refuse applicants' families residence permits, the idea was discarded, possibly due to the fact that only a fraction of the 10,000 work permits offered were taken up. The CDU also felt that it was unacceptable for a new policy to allow more foreigners into Germany and demanded a restriction of immigration in other fields, such as asylum. What all parties agreed upon however, is that the new approach should under no circumstances be modelled according to the interests of the immigrants: CDU party whip Friedrich Merz clearly spelled this out when he said that:
"the regulation of immigration should be defined by the interests of the state and not the immigrant."
This approach is also evident at EU level, where immigration is first and foremost linked to labour demands.
The Commission has recently implemented a Council Regulation (577/98) which binds all member states to undertake a labour force survey. Although the Regulation is not expl