The online welcome portal for international qualified persons, www.make-it-in-germany.com, has passed the mark of one million visitors. More than 80 per cent of visitors to the portal accessed it from abroad. Particularly great interest was demonstrated by skilled personnel in Italy, Portugal, Vietnam, India, Spain and Russia.
The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr Philipp Rösler, said, "The visitor record on 'Make it in Germany' illustrates that we have created an important service provision for skilled labour and students from abroad at just the right moment in time. Our portal is a signal for an open-minded culture of welcome and positively influences how Germany is perceived abroad. In the worldwide competition for the best brains and skills, Germany competes with traditional immigration countries such as the USA and Canada. Given the demographic development, we will be able to maintain growth, prosperity and innovation only, if we use also the potential of international skilled labour in addition to all available domestic potential. The considerable interest in our country as evidenced by more than one million visitors to our welcome portal illustrates that we are well on our way in doing so."
The multilingual welcome portal solicits highly qualified skilled labour across the globe, in particular from the fields of mathematics, computer sciences, natural sciences and technology (STEM fields). It demonstrates how qualified persons can successfully organise their immigration to Germany and it presents Germany as an open-minded, hospitable and diversified country.
German federal government plans to facilitate immigration
In India, Indonesia and Vietnam, the welcome portal is augmented by pilot projects on site. "Make it in Germany" consultants support qualified personnel in those pilot countries during their search for a job in Germany and in their preparations for immigration. This additional service provision likewise meets with high demand. In the individual pilot countries as well as at the International Placement Services (ZAV), a department of the German Federal Employment Agency, several hundred inquiries are registered each month via the welcome portal - tendency rising.
Moreover, the launch of the EU Blue Card was most successful: Within the first half year, according to data from the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, already more than 4,100 qualified persons have been granted the residence permit for highly qualified persons that was introduced in August 2012. The German federal government furthermore plans to facilitate immigration for skilled labour with vocational qualifications but without a university entrance qualification.
OECD report on immigration of foreign skilled labour
An up-to-date report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the immigration of foreign skilled labour concludes that Germany is one of the OECD countries with the lowest immigration restrictions for highly qualified skilled labour. The study also states that, however, small and medium-sized businesses in particular remain as yet reluctant in hiring international qualified personnel. Therefore, in addition to the diversified service provision for qualified persons, "Make it in Germany" features a separate section addressed at entrepreneurs.
The latest OECD report highlights the welcome portal as an important initiative. One of the reasons for this is to make public that, with the introduction of the blue card, access to the German labour market has been significantly simplified for international qualified personnel.
Portals online since June
On June 5, 2012, tied in with the launch of the Fachkräfte-Offensive (Skilled Labour Campaign) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the www.make-it-in-germany.com welcome portal for international qualified persons as well as the central platform of the skilled labour campaign, www.fachkräfte-offensive.de, both went online.
The welcome portal provides enterprises with comprehensive information regarding the mobilisation of skilled labour both from at home and abroad. The Fachkräfte-Offensive accompanies and augments the federal government's skilled labour concept. The aim is to make the public, industry enterprises and the skilled workforce aware of the issue of safeguarding the skilled labour supply and to indicate possible solutions.