Help! Poles are not coming
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
01.08.2011 08:24
Despite efforts by Germany's Chamber of Commerce, Poles and young people from other border countries are not rushing to Germany to become apprentices.
photo - PAP/DPA/Norbert Forsterling
The flood of workers from Poland mooted in the German press before the country opened its borders fully on 1 May has not materialised, wrotes this week's Der Spiegel.
The weekly points out that this is bad news for German entrepreneurs and the economy in general.
Companies had been hoping that Poles, Czechs and others would fill a widening skills gap, which if not solved will slow down growth in Germany.
However, it appears that interest in acquiring a profession in Germany is very small. In the past three months only a dozen or so people from regions close to Germany's borders have come to take up such oppotunities.
By 2025, Germany will have 6.5 million people less than now working in the economy and immigration must plug that gap, says Frank Jurgen Weis from the Federal Employment Agency.
"We need around 200,000 immigrants [and their families] a year," he told Der Spiegel. (pg)