Germany joins the active fight for Ukrainian labour

An article by Gremi Personal owner Evgenij Kirichenko on Censor.net

Original in Ukrainian: biz.censor.net.ua

On 1 March, Germany joins the fight for Ukrainian workers. Discussion of this topic in Poland is causing nervousness in business and among politicians.

Labour migration around the world has begun to change its nature globally. Just 5 years ago, even on the European continent, hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking better earnings were forced to leave their countries. Now the situation is taking a different turn. Today it is states that are beginning to compete for labour.

Over the past few years, more than 2.5 million Poles have left for England, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland or Sweden. The main reason is labour migration. This motivates Poland to become more active in its own market for Ukrainian labour. However, the Czech Republic, which recently increased its quota for labour from Ukraine to 40,000 people, is also actively competing for labour markets and specialists from Ukraine. From March this year, Germany joins this fight. Discussion of this topic in Poland is causing increasing nervousness in business and among politicians. Also, according to various estimates, more than 500,000 Ukrainian specialists could leave Poland within the first year, and this would have macroeconomic consequences for it in the form of a GDP decline of 1.6 percent.

The news that Germany is opening its own labour market to non-EU citizens has already spread through the media. But almost no one is talking about the details – exactly how this will be implemented in practice and what practical issues still remain unanswered.

So, from March 2020, a new Law on the Employment of Foreigners in Germany comes into force. In fact, it is not a new law but the 2008 law, to which certain provisions have been amended. The part that concerns us is Article 18 ("The principle of immigration of qualified workers; general provisions"). The main changes:

• The principle of priority of European Union citizens over citizens of other countries is abolished. That is, the check of whether a worker from Germany or the EU can be found for a given position is abolished.
• The restriction on issuing work visas only for positions with a severe shortage of workers is abolished.
• A six-month visa for job seeking will be issued (and this is a significant change).

So who can go to work in Germany and how does one obtain a work visa?

Under the new law, a worker can obtain a work visa if they have an employment contract with an employer, and the second mandatory point is that their diploma will be recognised in Germany. It should be noted that this concerns not only a university diploma confirming higher education, but also diplomas confirming vocational education, that is, at the level of technical and secondary schools. The third point includes a provision that the work must correspond to the education obtained.

How the process of verifying diplomas and recognising education will take place is currently unknown. The recognition of university diplomas is already a practice that has been functioning in Germany for some time, and there are no major problems with it. Most likely, the recognition of vocational education diplomas will not be a difficult or lengthy process either.

The work visa will be issued for 4 years if there is an open-ended contract. If the contract is fixed-term, then it is issued for the duration of the contract. An expedited procedure for obtaining a work visa will be organised. Such a procedure will cost 441 euros.

There is also the option to obtain the aforementioned visa for the purpose of finding work. Such a visa will be issued for six months, and to obtain it, documented knowledge of German will be required, as well as financial means for the period of stay, equivalent to 853 euros per month. What exactly the language proof will be, whether Ukrainian German-language courses will be recognised, or only courses from the Goethe-Institut – is also currently unknown, and the practice of a few months will show. Knowledge of German is required to obtain a job-seeking visa, after the end of the 4-year work visa, and when applying for the next residence permit.

Another question, the answer to which is still unclear: will it be possible to enter Germany "without a visa" and, having a contract, immediately apply for a work visa, or is it nevertheless necessary first to apply for a job-seeking visa and only after obtaining it apply for a work visa? These questions have no answer yet; nothing is mentioned about it in the law.

Another issue is whether a person will be able to conclude a contract with an intermediary company, which in turn will have a contract with manufacturing companies, or whether it must be exclusively a direct contract. In Germany, the practice of working through intermediaries is common. Since workers' rights are strongly protected and the dismissal procedure is complex, companies often do not want to take on all these obligations at once and turn to intermediaries. I would also note that people over 45, in order to obtain a work visa, must document that their monthly salary is no less than 3,685 euros, or, if they have already reached retirement age, provide proof of financial security.

Germany has repeatedly proven that it can very quickly adapt and standardise administrative procedures to the needs of its own economy. At present, Germany lacks approximately 1,200,000 qualified workers; the greatest demand is in such sectors as medicine, elderly care, and the technical field – manufacturing, construction. However, the need for qualified workers affects almost every industry. Therefore, it can be predicted with high probability that all current questions about implementing the procedures in practice will be resolved within a maximum of 4–6 months from the date this law enters into force.

Questions remain about the threat to the labour markets neighbouring Germany, and all the more so to one as uncompetitive and weak as Ukraine's.