The number of workers from non-EU countries has more than tripled within ten years

At the end of 2011 there were just over 90,500, ten years later around 295,000 people with temporary residence permits were working for the job in Germany. The need for skilled workers is still high anyway.

In recent years, significantly more foreign workers from outside the EU have temporarily come to Germany. At the end of 2021 there were a good 295,000 people who had a temporary residence permit for gainful employment. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Friday, their number has more than tripled within ten years. At the end of 2011 there were just over 90,500.

Foreigners who lived and worked in Germany with a residence permit for gainful employment at the end of 2021 most often had Indian citizenship: Eleven percent were nationals of the South Asian state. Citizens of the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina (nine percent) and Kosovo (seven percent) were also frequently represented.

At the end of 2021, a total of 24 percent of foreign workers were academic specialists with a so-called Blue Card. This was introduced across the EU in 2012 with the aim of countering the shortage of highly qualified specialists. The prerequisite for receiving the Blue Card is a university degree and a concrete job offer with a gross annual salary of at least 56,400 euros. In so-called shortage occupations, a lower gross salary limit of EUR 43,992 applies. At the end of 2021, almost half of the people with a Blue Card were working in a shortage occupation, such as a doctor or in IT.

In view of the acute shortage of skilled workers, the government is currently pushing ahead with plans to reform immigration law. Young university graduates should no longer be expected to earn as much as experienced professionals in order to be able to enter the country with a Blue Card. “We are lowering the salary limits for them,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (both SPD).