Germany to recruit 4 lakh skilled workers each year_ can Bangladesh benefit?

Bangladesh can reap great benefits from Germany's requirement of four lakh skilled foreign workers each year if authorities can ensure that the European country's labour market opens for Bangladeshi workers in the coming months.

Though there is no formal labour recruitment agreement between the countries at present_ the Bangladesh embassy in Germany said that they were trying to sign a government to government (G2G) deal to leverage the European labour market.

Germany's new coalition government wants to recruit 4 lakh qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both the demographic imbalance and the labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic_ reports Reuters on 21 January.

"Germany is suffering from a skilled labour shortage_ especially nurses_ caregivers and staffers for the hospitality (hotels_ restaurants) sector. We will learn more about the sectors which need workers in the coming weeks_" Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan_ ambassador of Bangladesh to Germany told that.

"I have already discussed with our foreign ministry and ex-pat ministry on the issue. According to their instructions_ we are trying to negotiate with the German ministries concerned to open a formal labour recruitment process_" he added.

He said that due to the rising Covid-19 cases_ the process has become slower now in the country.

The German Economic Institute estimates that the labour force will shrink by more than three lakhs this year as more old workers are retiring now in contrast with younger ones entering the labour market.

This gap is expected to widen to more than 6.5 lakhs in 2029_ leaving an accumulated shortage of people of working age in 2030 by roughly 5 million. The number of Germans in employment grew to nearly 45 million last year despite the pandemic.

After decades of low birth rates and uneven migration_ a shrinking labour force also poses a demographic time bomb for Germany's public pension system_ in which fewer employees are burdened with the task of financing the pensions of a growing mass of retirees who are enjoying longer life expectancy.

"The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy_" Christian Duerr_ parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP)_ told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

"We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with a modern immigration policy. We have to reach the mark of 4_00_000 skilled workers from abroad as quickly as possible_" Duerr added.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats_ Duerr's libertarian FDP and the environmentalist Greens agreed in their coalition deal on measures like a points system for specialists from countries outside the European Union and lifting the national minimum wage to 12 euros ($13.60) per hour to make working in Germany more attractive. Currently_ around 20_000 Bangladeshis live in Germany_ according to an unofficial estimate.

According to available data until 2016_ nearly 2_50_000 Bangladeshi immigrants are living in different EU countries_ while 80_000 are staying illegally and more are still arriving.

Of the 7.5 lakh people_ who sought asylum in Europe in 2019_ some 13_190 applications were from Bangladeshis_ reports Deutsche Welle.