Go East, Young IT Worker!
Are you a computer programmer or a fiber optic specialist tired of the crowded job market in the United States? Or a graphic artist looking for something new to design? Maybe you're an Internet billionaire who can't find the model of Mercedes you want in Silicon Valley. Well, at the risk of sounding like a travel brochure: consider Germany.
The German government recently announced that it is actively seeking high-tech workers worldwide to join its workforce. Earlier this year, the parliament, or Bundestag, passed what's known as the "Green Card bill," a measure that will allow foreign workers to be hired on in Germany under a special temporary residency status. The first of those work permits were handed out at the beginning of August.
The idea is to grow Germany's lagging technology economy. Germany aspires to stand alongside the U.S. and Japan as leaders in the IT field, but it simply doesn't have the intellectual capital to do it. As many as 100,000 high-tech jobs are waiting to be filled. So Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his coalition partners in the Green Party decided to recruit young, eager specialists from the rest of Europe, India, China, Japan and the United States.
Requests from prospective workers and employers alike have been pouring in since the program was implemented, according to the Deutsche Welle. Individuals can register for free, in English, at Green Card Germany. The applicants are sorted and placed in a central database that can be browsed by the German firms. The companies themselves then contact the workers to make the hire.
Twenty thousand work permits will be issued in this first round, with more possibly to come. IT professionals who meet the credentials will get a five-year work permit. Recipients will be able to bring their families with them, who will also be allowed to work in Germany.
The Green Card bill was not an easy to pass. Immigration for workers is a touchy subject, especially in light of the fact that the German unemployment rate is hovering at about 10 percent. Conservatives railed: why bring in foreign workers when there are so many Germans who are jobless? Opposition to the initiative was, not surprisingly, staunch. Supporters argued that Germany is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve IT education every year, but education takes time and these jobs need to be filled now.
CBSNews.com Producer Christopher Weber is working in Berlin on an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship for promoting cross-cultural professional ties between German and U.S. journalists.
Written by Christopher Weber