Berlin plans to reduce labor shortages by granting more work visas to people from the Western Balkan states. But unions worry that this could lead to lower wages and worse conditions for unskilled workers.
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Germany is struggling with a chronic labor shortage. According to the Institute for Employment Research, there are currently 1.98 million job vacancies in the country. Now, Berlin plans to fill these gaps by liberalizing labor migration legislation.
This will include two changes to a provision called the "Western Balkans Regulation," which will not only be extended indefinitely from the current expiration date at the end of 2023, but the quota will also be doubled to include 50,000 job seekers annually.
When around one million refugees — mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq — arrived in Germany via the Balkan route in late 2015 at the height of the so-called "refugee crisis," they were also joined by many people from six Western Balkan countries — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, northern Macedonia and Serbia. They filed about 30% of the asylum applications at the time, though their chances of acceptance were rather low: Only around 5% of them were granted.
To avoid costly repatriations, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government made an agreement with countries of origin for them to take on those who were deported and review the situations of those willing to leave in advance.
In addition to this, the Western...
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