Ayça Polat, university professor for Social Pedagogy in the Migration Society, warns against a one-sided critical view on migration and emphasises the role of migrants in the skilled labour market in Germany.

"For several years now, we have been hearing than Germany needs to attract 400,000 immigrants every year to even begin to meet the demands of the labour market. And there is no question that the need for skilled workers in the social and education sectors will continue to increase dramatically. Yet the discrepancy between the demand for skilled workers and the political solutions to the problem remains huge.

Expectations that the deficit in skilled labour could be met through signing recruitment deals with other countries or through the Skilled Immigration Act of 2019 have not been fulfilled. Furthermore, we have seen that those who do come to Germany via recruitment deals often don’t stay here long because they feel socially isolated or are deterred by major language barriers. This means that in future we need to integrate a lot more people from third countries – people who already live in Germany – into the labour market and offer them the opportunity to obtain (additional) qualifications.

It is much more sustainable and expedient to allow people who have come here as refugees to “change course” and offer them a perspective by granting them full residence permits and recognition of their existing qualifications. Because these people are already here. Generally speaking, they have language skills, they are socially integrated and they would be keen to stay if given the chance.

It would also make sense to adopt a more flexible and innovative approach when it comes to recognising qualifications that these people already have. Even today, so much in terms of professional experience and qualifications is either not recognised or the hurdles are too high. For one thing, there must be a lot more opportunities for people to acquire professional qualifications and certification while in paid employment. Here in Oldenburg, for example, as part of the refresher course on “Pedagogical Competence in Education, Counselling, and Social work – Academic Advanced Training for Highly Qualified Refugees”, we have just launched a sub-project that provides specific knowledge on legal issues in social work or in the childcare sector, which is needed for state recognition of qualifications, for example. This hybrid learning programme, which combines online and in-person courses, has proven incredibly popular with immigrants and employees alike. We are receiving clear signals from the labour market that such offers are welcome. A number of institutions have even offered to co-finance them. Employers and the business community, as well as chambers of commerce, have always been ahead of politicians in their thinking. The regulations on residence and employment law are often much slower on the uptake. I assume that the business sector has already warned the government that the current restrictive migration policies are not working and are actually damaging for the economy. It is a fallacy to believe that closing borders can solve a country’s social problems – we have seen this often enough in the past."