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Foreign non-academic skilled workers on the German labour market ,
Source: BAMF
Shortages are already occurring in many labour market sectors and regions of Germany when it comes to filling vacancies that require qualified vocational training. The Federal Government views this as a key challenge for the coming years and also takes people from countries outside the EU into account in its Skilled Labour Strategy.
Access to the labour market for migrants with vocational training improved as far back as 2013. An amendment to the Ordinance on the admission of foreigners for the purpose of taking up employment (Employment Regulation) (Beschäftigungsverordnung) paved the way for this. Since then, qualified skilled workers from non-EU countries have been able to come to Germany under certain circumstances to fill vacancies in so-called "shortage occupations" (such as building electricians, nurses). These opportunities are being expanded with the Skilled Immigration Act (Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz), which enters into force on 1 March 2020.
In the research report entitled "Ausländische nicht-akademische Fachkräfte auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt" (Foreign non-academic skilled workers on the German labour market), the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees analyses the situation that currently prevails before the Skilled Immigration Act enters into force. The report provides the basis for a later examination of the implementation and effect of the Act.
The report starts with a presentation of the legal foundations and the current state of research. In addition, data from the Federal Labour Office and the Central Register of Foreigners on the entry and employment of foreign non-academic skilled workers in Germany were evaluated.
The core findings of the research report are as follows:
- Between 2013 and 2018, both the number of (highly) qualified labour migrants immigrating each year and the number of non-academic skilled workers from abroad employed in Germany rose by around 60 percent. This is a positive development for a period of 5 years. However, it needs to be taken into account that the number of persons who immigrated in the context of labour migration to take up employment without qualification requirements also increased significantly in parallel.
- In 2018, the Federal Labour Office's statistics classified approximately 1.9 million foreign employees as "skilled workers" or "specialists", largely corresponding to non-academic skilled workers. At one third, the proportion of women amongst them was significantly lower than that of German employees and had even fallen slightly compared to 2013. The proportion of women was particularly low in the manufacturing industry and in the construction and transport sectors. By contrast, women accounted for the majority of foreign non-academic skilled workers in the social and health care professions.
- Persons of Turkish nationality represented the largest group among employed foreign non-academic skilled workers in 2018. The Eastern European EU Member States and the main nationalities of asylum seekers (Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria) are showing particularly high rates of increase in the number of employees in this segment in the course of time. However, the importance of the Western Balkan countries and Asian countries, such as India and China, is also increasing due to labour migration from these regions.
- The number of skilled workers immigrating as part of labour migration has increased in recent years, particularly in the southern and western German Länder, but also in the major cities throughout Germany. Taken as a percentage, the increase has been higher in rural areas, meaning they have been able to make up some ground to a certain extent – however, the numbers of skilled workers immigrating to these areas remain low in absolute terms.
- At the end of 2018, approximately one in every ten employees in training who was subject to social insurance contributions only had a foreign nationality. While Turkish citizens comprised the largest percentage of this group, a quarter of the trainees already had citizenship of one of the eight main asylum origin countries.
The research report was written by: Johannes Graf and Barbara Heß
The results of the research are published only in German.