It is increasingly important for Germany to recruit foreign workers, but immigration procedures need serious reform, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.
"We know that we can only guarantee our future, the performance of our national economy, the performance of our social security systems as well, if we have enough skilled workers," Scholz said during a visit to a subsidiary of the Foreign Ministry in Potsdam, near Berlin.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accompanied Scholz.
The chancellor acknowledged that attracting skilled workers worldwide was a "major challenge," emphasizing the importance of an efficient agency to process foreign workers.
The German government wants to significantly improve the visa process for skilled workers. "A modern immigration country needs a modern residence law and a non-bureaucratic, modern visa procedure," Baerbock noted.
However, she said, the current government had inherited a system fit for the last century. At the time, people had reacted "sceptically - not to say rather deterrently - to some of those who wanted to work and study in Germany or come here."
The system needs to be faster, work digitally and be more job-specific, Baerbock noted. The current categorization by country was not useful in searching for skilled workers in the IT sector or in healthcare, she argued.
