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Scholz: employment for foreigners can counter labor shortage

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Dec 2022 21:37

Scholz is inviting for more migrant workers to come work in Germany to keep Europe's strongest economy afloat.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said over the weekend that it is in Germany's interests to facilitate access to employment for women and older people and attract more foreign workers in order to avoid a labor shortage and avert a potential crisis in its public pension system in the coming years.

During a citizen forum in Postdam, Scholz told his audience that the government was already mobilizing efforts to further attract migrant workers to keep Europe's biggest economy afloat, adding that the government approved last month a series of reforms on immigration law, which means that contributions on pension might not be raised substantially before the end of his mandate in 2025.

Scholz further said that more women are needed in the workforce to counter the labor shortage, as reported by Funke media group, noting that it was important to enable more people to work until the official retirement age.

"That's difficult for many people today," he said.

According to Germany's national bureau of statistics, the German population is likely to rise by 1 million to 84 million this year due to migration from Ukraine.

If immigration levels happen to be high, they could reach up to 90 million by 2070.

In September, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) reported that the number of migrants trying to enter the European Union without a visa or authorization in the first quarter of 2022 has spiked to 2016 highs, adding that the majority of migrants have been from Afghanistan and Syria, two countries ravaged by a Western-waged war that lasted for two decades and more than a decade, respectively.

On December 1, a German NGO called the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a formal complaint to The Hague accusing several high-ranking EU and Members of State officials of "atrocious crimes committed against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers," an ECCHR executive summary of a Communication to the International Criminal Court reads.

The charges specifically involved EU politicians conspiring with Libyan coastguards by intercepting refugees and preventing them from reaching Europe by sea and forcing them to return to Libya only to be placed in detention camps.

Christopher Hein, a professor of law and immigration policies at Luiss University in Rome, claimed that the "deal is totally in line with the policy of the EU.”

"It is a bilateral agreement, but it is supported and co-financed by the EU," Hein said, adding that “tens of thousands” of people had been intercepted and brought back to Libya since 2017, with 35,000 intercepted so far this year.