Is Germany still attractive for skilled workers? | DW News

Lived and worked in Germany for 24 years and counting. My Asian family has experienced mild discrimination occasionally but overall Germany has provided education for my kids, apprenticeships and now well paid jobs. Its not perfect- nowhere is - but workers have protections, sick pay, public healthcare works more or less and 6 weeks annual holiday. Overall I'm pretty happy to be here.

Germany doesn’t need skilled workers, Germany needs low paid workers.

Before calling people to be slave... Solve discrimination in your society.. Its horrible

Worked with Germany and Ireland in software development. The Germans tended to discriminate but had trust we’ll do the job(they usually did mostly management and we did all the research and development). The Irish discriminated even more but also didn’t trust our teams, even though we consistently delivered the best quality in the entire project(all senior engineers in our team while they tended to hire juniors). I am trying to say that it’s not unique to Germany.

I'm not leaving my country to become a second-tier citizen in another country full of entitled people.

I know Germany has it's drawbacks, but living as an international student it hasn't been easy I studied the language, had good grades, now I m able to help my family back home. All I can say Germany gave me the opportunity my country could not and I am very grateful for that. Glück auf

Germany says it wants skilled workers then does absolutely nothing sbout it. Horrible visa process. Low wages. No digitalization. Must call everyone on the phone and they only speak German.

It’s not just racism. German bureaucracy is ridiculously complex, but perhaps even more off-putting is how closed-minded and resistant Germans often are to any sort of change. Try working in any industry or institution and you will be surrounded by “Das geht doch nicht”, That’s not possible, “Das machen wir nicht hier” we don’t do that here. I have worked in Universities in Britain and in Germany, and here I am surrounded by incompetence, nepotism, and dysfunctionality, far, far worse than in Britain. Professors have complete power over other academics, they can’t be sacked, even if they don’t turn up, this often (not always) encourages complacency and inefficiency. Professors are often very poorly educated outside a very narrow range, they are afraid of foreign competition so rarely appoint foreigners to any significant positions for fear of it revealing their own mediocrity. The rest of the academic staff have to dance to the professors’ tune, which serves universities very badly here. Just look at the international university ratings - 1 German university in the top 50 vs 12 British, and plenty more American. Foreign friends of mine complain that the various institutions and industries they work in are just as atrophied and incompetent. The chances of foreigner workers being promoted to senior positions is very low. Plus you have to put up with petty moodiness and sourness - a very German trait. Topping them all is the know-it-all (Besserwisser) attitude. Are there nice, efficient, warm Germans? Of course - many, but sometimes in the public or work sphere it is very hard to find them.

We need more awareness about the differences between illegal, and legal immigration because they seem to get mixed up together and are significantly different. There should be a clearer focus on actively encouraging legal immigration of skilled workers, whilst doing far more to discourage illegal immigration of unskilled workers. The former strengthens the country, the latter weakens it. As a British / Irish immigrant in Germany it has been a great place to move, raise kids and start a company, but I struggle to find enough local talent, and also strugle under the huge amount of taxes I have to pay. On balance, out of the 8 countries I have lived, it's one of the best overall but the trajectory at the moment doesnt seem positive.

German society as a whole need to rethink how they do things, it's not just up to the government. Doesn't matter how much easier the government tries to make it. People still won't come if companies refuse to speak English, if there's so much suffocating bureaucracy, if there's no housing available (or lower priority for foreigners), if you can't get a barely functional internet connection even living in the city center, if you have to beg to make German friends, if there's discrimination and distrust towards foreigners (yes, in every company I worked it took months for the Germans to trust me, even though I was doing my job perfectly fine and better than most from the beginning, while other foreigners quickly acknowledged my skills), if it's so hard to get a doctor appointment. Then you see how much you're paying in taxes and question yourself if it's worth it to go through all this.

I spent two months in Berlin last year. While some people were helpful and nice, I found many people unfriendly and sour.

I came to Germany to work AS a nurse. It has been the closest I have ever been to slavery. I am 42 yo

Only if this country cared a bit more for those who are already working here, it would do a world of good for this struggling mammoth.

I knew it. Someone will be interviewed whose name is Nguyen.

I remember hearing that after decades the Goethe Institute in my hometown in Brazil was closing its doors, so I guess that wasn't only there where this is happening.

Don't forget that lots of people come to Germany and leave after 1 year or 2 years. That's also a fact.

The country is not open and the society is not welcoming. Do not lie to people abroad.

As someone that married a German and has been trying to integrate its mostly the system. I have faced very little racism from Germans. Its mostly just the system that makes you feel rejected. I studied in a very good Highschool, taking all possible extra classes, including first aid, psychology and world religions. However I didn't take enough foreign language courses. So Germany says I am a Middle school dropout. And Germany's school system is so elitist that the moment you are not "university material" you are a dum dum that maybe might make it as a cook, warehouse worker, driver or whatever job the general German culture doesn't want to have. Germany is great if you want to live in a place with less crime, (though its getting bad, I have bad experiences in Koln) and with a basic salary and medical care. But the odds of you rising up above the path that the German government assigns to you are so so so low. If you are a visionary don't come to Germany...

Racism and discrimination is only part of the issue. I wouldn't leave my home country to germany if i had a stable life and enough income to live. Nowadays, you struggle to get anything in Germany, including housing, proper healthcare, nurseries etc. After paying your bills and the extremely high taxes, you will mostly end up with nothing to take back home.

I think Germany has the same Catch 22 problem like most other countries: If you want to get a working visa, you need an invitation to work from a local company. But all local companies want you to have a working visa first, in order to work for them.