Germany urgently needs to attract migrant workers – it just doesn’t want them to feel welcome | Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes

The government of Friedrich Mirz sent a clear message to anyone who is thinking about coming to live in Germany: No. After her message to those who want to come to Germany to a job It is: We need you.

This may seem to be a contradiction, but it is a revival of the thinking that prompted the “guest worker” program for post -war years. Between 1955 and 1973, the West Germany It sought to rebuild its economy by attracting work, especially from Türkiye, as well as from Italy, Portugal and Yugoslavia. However, he did this without paying much attention to the humanitarian needs of the arrivals.

The repetition of that experience, and the social tensions you created, at this moment will be worse.

the Wretschaftswunder (The Economic Miracle) feeds standard growth and lack of employment. Now, the German economy is in stagnation, but it strongly needs people to fulfill basic public services. Above all, they need to help finance the pension bill.

Given that Germany has also become a zero of Europe’s increasing sensitivity to migration after the reaction that followed Angela Merkel’s open policy Towards the Syrian refugees a decade ago, it is worth noting how Berlin is moving in the case. To date, MERZ MARZLASS is offered as it should not be done.

On the one hand, the conservative counselor feeds the right -wing accounts indicating that migration is a threat to the country. On the other hand, he speaks as the voice of German business and pleads with more foreign workers.

“We need skilled immigrants as two engines for progress,” Mirz said In this month, at a ceremony to honor the contributions of özlem türici and Uğur şahin – Turkish immigrants behind the Covid Biontech pioneers. He added that the anti -immigration “ideologies” were a threat not only to the prosperity of Germany “, but the worst of that is that their narrow minds threaten the future of our liberal regime.”

But his government sent exactly the type of signal that he claims to be denounced. Germany continued a new policy for refusing asylum seekers on its borders, despite the court’s order to be called Illegal and violation of the European Union Law. The confrontation of the rejection of the border comes despite a significant decrease in refugees – until April 2025, the numbers had decreased Almost half From the previous year.

Another leg of the Mirz Migration Strategy is a situation End to “naturalization of turbo”, This gives new arrivals the opportunity to apply for a German passport after at least three years in selected cases. The official justification is that ending the fast citizenship will cancel the “cloud factor” and reduce illegal immigration.

But obtaining the rules of citizenship and retail migration has nothing to do with each other. The crossing of the border as an irregular immigrant can be a despair, and sometimes opportunistic. Obtaining a German passport requires at least legal residence, but also includes various obstacles and a large amount of papers.

The rapid path is more appreciated and reserved for people who offer “exceptional integration efforts”, such as speaking German at an advanced level, and they pay the continuation of taxes and participation in society, for example by volunteering in local charitable societies or sports clubs.

The disposal of this path, which was opened only in June 2024, will have a very little effect. Last year – when the rush was expected to benefit from the new process expected – only about 7 % of people who receive German citizenship have an accelerated demand, according to what it said. Destatis Federal Statistics Agency.

But Mirz’s movements reinforce the narration that Germany is overwhelmed by newcomers. The right-wing AFD is reinforced- Second in the polls – Who has Deportation Thousands of people, including some with immigrant wallpapers with German citizenship.

Control of entry is a project, but these unpleasant hatred policies nourish terrorist feelings and not aim to concern the concerns of citizens. Also, political profits are limited.

While the frantic discussion about immigration kept it as the supreme issue of Germans, only 38 % of people classified it as one of their three main concerns, which are less than April. According to the IPSOS survey. Economic concerns such as inflation and poverty/inequality are other fears.

The most difficult facial fact is that Germany can use all the help it can get. With the elderly the Germans head to retirement Millions During the next decade, the country must welcome the network 400,000 new arrivals Every year to maintain balanced things and bear the increasing cost of pension.

But this is not the post -war era, as Germany can sign agreements with poor countries and expect thousands of people to arrive. There is a global competition for qualified workers, and Germany in a non -favorable position because of its language and reputation in its unwillingness.

This is a legacy of mismanagement Gastarbereiter (A guest worker), when Germany had no plan to integrate the people who attracted them to work, nor the desire to do so. It also reflects a national identity that left narrow and backward because of its Nazi past.

Former soccer player Missut Ozil, born in 1988, did not feel the family of a narrow Turkish colleague in Wadi Rohr in Germany, completely acceptable. Although he starred in the 2014 World Cup victory in Germany, he said: “When we win, I am German; when we lose, I am a foreigner.”

His story shows how acceptable acceptance for many. It is not isolated. According to For a recent study By Friedrich Ebert Foundation, between 2015 and 2022, 12 million people immigrated to Germany. The study also said that in the same period, more than 7 million immigrants left again. The main reasons were the difficulties in feeling part of German society.

The next blow can wave on the horizon. According to a study conducted German Institute for Employment ResearchA quarter of the country’s migrants – about 2.6 million people – consider mobilization and departure.

The isolation imposed by Germany will have slow erosion of the workforce unless it is processed urgently. A review of the narration on immigration to reformulate it as part of the solution will be a good starting point.

But the political class is barely ready. As Marcos Soder, the conservative prime minister in Bavaria, said, he was recently told The right of the media News: “Of course, we need migration – unfortunately.”

• Chris Reichter and Will Wilkes are the two authors participating for Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Performany Ascent To Crisis. Both cover Germany from Berlin and Frankfurt, respectively, to Bloomberg News