Why is the Law Albanians are counting on to be late in Germany

Deutsche Welle: The new labor force law adopted by the German cabinet, which goes into effect on 1. January 2020 for many from Albania and Kosovo is like the promise of a better life, jobs in Germany, the best future... do you think?

Dr. Carol Burkert: The new labour force law is once aimed at meeting the needs of the German economy's workforce and ensuring and controlling the workforce from third countries. This is certainly a signal to the workforce from third countries, that now the focus is on qualified workers, and if you have this qualifications, then it can really be promising, a dream come true.

To this point the road is not easy, where do you see reliefs for the arrival of the workforce?

The innovations can be summed up at three points -- first, it equates people with professional schooling with those with university -- before the arrival of the workforce was linked only to those who had conducted university studies. Second of all, relief will really bring about removal of priority verification (no longer verified), whether there is a German candidate for a job or from the EU St. red.) The other news is, and this may be considered a challenge, that recognition of the German language is required and certified as criteria for the work or the equivalent of foreign professional diplomas. So two reliefs and a difficulty.

Many hoped for a rapid implementation of the law, it would take effect in January 2020. Why the delay?

This delay has its reasons, law enforcement requires a major adoption of related regulations and provisions; Second, here we can also make a connection to the Western Balkan Order, the administration needs to be prepared. There is an idea for creating several central authorities for foreigners, where various procedures will be focused. The arrival of a new number of qualified workers will put the administration ahead of major challenges, because there will be a new increase in visa requirements.

You mean embassies in the region...

Both... are once expected to establish in Germany several centres for foreigners in various areas where tasks will be centralised, the other known to be increasing visa requirements at the embassy, all of this must be prepared first. What I'm concerned about is that now there are problems of getting a schedule at the embassy, there are very long expectations, online systems only function partially. The situation will get even more difficult, because it is really forecast that increased personnel and expansion of capacity in embassies, but in law this is not mentioned empirically. It says only that this will lead to a significant increase in visa requirements and the increased work of German embassies abroad.

But how will they deal with this new influx when there are problems...

They need to expand their capacity to handle visa requirements, but they need to introduce procedures to facilitate procedures, such as digitalization, but that's just the identification of the problem theoryally.

Practically?

That's the problem. In the labour force law, there are no concrete figures until now, how many additional employees are needed for each embassy, until this is done. There is no record unfortunately. There's only one consciousness that capacity needs to be increased. But in the text of the law, it is said that due to lack of prognosis, it cannot be concrete how far the increase of work goes. That means, you don't even know how much time this is all about. I'm afraid again we will have problems like the “Rule of the Western Balkans”, and it will have to be passed back into the straits of administration, the visa sector, etc.

Can there be reliefs if the work visa is considered a priority...

The law envisions an accelerated procedure, at times and procedures, if an employer pays a certain amount and argues, why a quick proceeding is needed, if that happens, then this accelerated procedure is activated by certain deadlines. People in foreign offices will be made available for this, I think special contact persons will then be made available in the visa sectors.

How specifically will the accelerated procedure take place?

The venture should argue, that there is an urgent need for the job to be occupied in question, so the person who comes from abroad will go through a quick procedure for asking for a visa. I would call it an emergency desk... where the employer quickly connects to the office of foreigners and the office of foreigners to the visa sector.

The law also envisions visa arrival for 6 months at personal expense to look for work in Germany. If you find this job, will you have to go back to the country to obtain a visa or take it to the office of foreigners in Germany?

There's no clear answer to that and I'm practically not verified. But I see it problematic to come in six months looking for work. Look out! This is related to certain conditions -- such as recognition or a professional graduation, needs German language knowledge, at least B1 level, you have to prove that these six months make a living. It must be said, this six - month term has already existed for those with university schooling, and it's actually been used very little. This is because these conditions are not easy to meet.

So another delay...

I see the problem at a professional graduation equivalency. We have long waiting times in the visa sector, but let's not forget that the next problem is the long time needed for recognition of a professional degree or certificate. So we have two parallels, (visa and graduation recognition, St. Red.) that, in my opinion, are inexplicable, the other about how to ease the overload of employees dealing with these issues. One law is written quickly, but what is needed is a qualitative, rapid and efficient expansion of the administration. both inside and outside Germany. The infrastructure is needed to make the success of this law vulnerable.

Dr. Carola Burkert is an expert on migration at the Institute for the Study of Labour and Professional Market, a research entity of the German Federal Labour Agency. The article is the production of DW.