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WORKING IN GERMANY

‘Immigration miracle’: How Germany’s foreign STEM workforce has grown in a decade

The number of foreign employees with STEM jobs in Germany has significantly gone up over the last decade. A new study reveals where workers originate from, where they're settling and how they are contributing to the economy.

Two Blue Cards for foreign skilled workers are on a table at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Bavaria.
Two Blue Cards for foreign skilled workers are on a table at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Bavaria. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Karmann

Immigration has long been a hot-button topic in Germany. And with the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) seeing rising support recently, foreign nationals may be feeling a little concerned. 

However, a new study highlights the contribution that foreign nationals have made in the workforce – specifically in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) professions, an acronym known as MINT in Germany. 

‘A small German immigration miracle’, is how business magazine WirtschaftsWoche described the phenomenon of the rising number of employees in technical and scientific professions from abroad.

“When global corporations like Intel or TSMC come to Germany, they also need experts to work for them,” said WirtschaftsWoche in a report published on Friday August 25th.

“The planned Intel plant is expected to create up to 20,000 new jobs in Magdeburg alone. In Germany, a country with a shortage of skilled workers? This is a problem. But a study by the Institute of the German Economy (IW), which is exclusively available to WirtschaftsWoche, shows what an important contribution immigration already makes. In the past 10 years, Germany has experienced an immigration miracle, albeit a relatively small one.”

READ ALSO:

How have foreigners contributed to STEM in Germany?

According to the study, the number of employees from abroad in STEM professions in Germany has increased by around 190 percent from around 70,000 at the end of 2012 to almost 202,000 professionals at the end of 2022.

The 132,000 additional foreign employees – with jobs such as IT specialists, industrial engineers and scientists – contribute about 16 billion euros per year to Germany, the research found. The proportion of foreigners within STEM has almost doubled within 10 years from 6.5 to 12.7 percent. 

Tesla workers put the finishing touches on a new car

Tesla workers put the finishing touches on a new car at the company’s Brandenburg plant. The number of foreign employees in this area has risen due to the car manufacturing setting up there. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Patrick Pleul

Overall, employment in STEM professions in Germany rose from over one million to more than one and a half million, an increase of almost 50 percent.

Where are workers coming from – and which areas are they settling in?

Immigration from non-EU countries to Germany’s STEM workforce is particularly high. It has more than quadrupled from over 30,000 in 2012 to almost 122,000 by the end of 2022. The front-runner for origin countries is India with an increase of 635 percent – from 3,750 to over 27,500 skilled workers at the end of 2022.

READ ALSO: Germany sees ‘over 550 percent ‘ increase in IT workers from India 

People from Central and South America are next, increasing from 2,310 in 2012 to 9,870 workers in 2022. North Africa is the third highest origin country – going from 1,270 STEM workers in 2012 to 8,050 in a decade. 

A similar picture emerges among engineers. Here, the proportion of foreigners in Germany grew from 6 to 10.5 percent between 2012 and 2022. But there are large regional differences. The proportion of foreigners in engineering professions is particularly high in Starnberg (27.4 percent), the Main-Taunus district (22.3 percent), Munich and the surrounding area (22.6 percent) and Berlin (19 percent).

It’s a mixed picture in eastern Germany. The share of foreigners in engineering jobs is much lower in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (3.9 percent), but in Brandenburg it’s almost twice as high at 7.4 percent.

The Ilm district in Thuringia, where the share of foreign engineers has grown from under five percent to over 22 percent in the past 10 years also stands out. According to the authors of the study, this is due to the many graduates of the TU Ilmenau and foreign companies setting up there. 

The example of the Tesla plant in Grünheide in the Oder-Spree district shows that large international companies are reinforcing the trend. There, the proportion of foreign engineers rose abruptly after the car manufacturer set up shop. 

Whether this is also to be expected in Magdeburg or Dresden, where the chip companies Intel and TSMC want to launch remains to be seen. At the end of 2022, the proportion of foreigners in engineering professions in Magdeburg was just 4.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Germany is continuing its push to increase immigration from abroad to help ease the worker shortage. 

In June, the government approved a new skilled immigration law designed to cut red tape and encourage more immigration from abroad. 

READ ALSO: When will Germany’s new immigration rules come into force?

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GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

Foreigners in Germany are waiting on tenterhooks for the introduction of the new dual nationality law on Thursday - but the centre-right CDU and CSU say they would overturn the reform if re-elected next year.

German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

“The CDU and CSU will reverse this unsuccessful reform,” Alexander Throm (CDU), spokesperson on domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told DPA on Tuesday.

“Dual citizenship must remain the exception and be limited to countries that share our values.”

Throm also criticised the new citizenship law for reducing the amount of time foreigners need to live in the country before naturalising as Germans, describing the new residence requirements as “far too short”.

“After five or even three years, it is not yet possible to determine with certainty whether integration has been successful in the long term,” he stated.

“The recent caliphate demonstrations and the rampant Islamist extremism, often by people with German passports, must be a wake-up call for us all.”

READ ALSO: Which foreign residents are likely to become German after citizenship law change?

Despite vociferous opposition, the alliance between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) was powerless to stop the traffic-light coalition’s citizenship reform passing in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat earlier this year. 

The reform, which permits the holding of multiple passports, lowers residence requirements and removes language hurdles for certain groups, is set to come into force on June 27th. 

But with the CDU and CSU emerging as clear winners in the recent EU parliamentary elections and regularly landing on 30 percent or above in the polls, it’s possible that the party could be on course to re-enter government next year. 

In this situation, the centre-right parties have pledged to try and undo what senior CDU politicians have described as a “dangerous” reform.

“It is not unusual for successive governments to reverse decisions made by the previous government,” Andrea Lindholz, the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said in a recent response to a question

“We will maintain our position on this and will continue to strive for a corresponding change.”

READ ALSO: What are citizenship offices around Germany doing to prepare for the new law?

Whether the CDU and CSU can secure enough votes at both state and federal elections to change the law in the future remains to be seen.

The parties may also have to compromise on their plans with any future coalition partner, such as the Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) or Free Democrats (FDP), all of whom support liberal immigration laws and the holding of multiple nationalities. 

‘Citizenship devaluation law’

The CDU and CSU parties, which form a centre-right alliance nicknamed the Union, have long been opposed to dual nationality in Germany.

During their years of governing in a so-called grand coalition with the centre-right Social Democrats (SPD), the parties had regularly made reforms of citizenship one of their red lines, citing the danger of hostile nations influencing Germany from within. 

In a recent parliamentary speech back in January, Throm had slammed the bill as a “citizenship devaluation law” and accused the government of trying to generate a new electorate to win votes.

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

In comments aimed primarily at Germany’s large Turkish diaspora, the CDU politician claimed that people who had lived in Germany for decades but not taken German citizenship had already chosen their old country over Germany.

The majority of Turks in Germany are also supporters of the authoritarian president Recep Erdogan, he argued.

Responding to the claims, FDP migration expert Ann-Veruschka Jurisch said the opposition was fuelling resentments against migrants by claiming the government was “squandering German citizenship”.

In fact, she argued, the reform has tightened up requirements by ensuring that people who claim benefits and cannot support themselves are unable to become German citizens.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Germany’s citizenship law reform

In addition, the B1 language requirements have only been softened in a few exceptional cases, for example to honour the lifetime achievements of the guest worker generation who had few opportunities when they arrived, Jurisch said. 

If foreigners have committed crimes, the authorities will be able to investigate whether these involved racist or anti-Semitic motives before citizenship is granted, she added. 

With reporting by DPA

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