labour market
IfW boss: Need a million migrants
“Our biggest competitive disadvantage is not corporate taxes, but a lack of skilled workers and demographics. We need a million migrants,” says the President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Moritz Schularick. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
“Our biggest competitive disadvantage is the lack of skilled workers and demographics,” says the President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. And explains what it takes to counteract this.
There must be a corresponding openness in the country for this to happen. “That would be the most important structural reform. It requires courage to change,” said the economist. “We would also have to expand early childhood education to keep mothers in the labor market. If we can do both, I’m optimistic for the location.”
From the point of view of the “economic wise man” Monika Schnitzer, Germany even needs 1.5 million immigrants a year, “if, minus the considerable emigration, we have 400,000 new citizens every year and thus want to maintain the number of workers”. A welcoming culture is urgently needed. “If Intel builds a factory in Magdeburg and also wants to recruit foreign specialists for it, they have to feel welcome there,” the chairwoman of the council of experts for assessing overall economic development recently told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The new Skilled Workers Act is a step in the right direction.