German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) plans to recruit up to 90 000 workers from India every year to close the “skills gap”. But the facts and figures show that this strategy could miss the core problem. Germany is facing a massive economic challenge. Since 2019, around 2.4 million jobs have been lost in Germany. And the number of unemployed is around three million – that corresponds to almost seven percent of the working population.
To counter this, Norbert Röttgen (CDU) has pointed out the local opportunities for young talent on the labor market with “children instead of Indians”. According to the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), there are currently around 570 000 unfilled positions, including many in mechanical engineering, nursing and technical professions.
Nevertheless, the government is relying on foreign skilled workers, while a large proportion of the domestic workforce remains unused. In the IT and care sectors alone, which Heil sees as the main target for Indian specialists, there are around 130 000 unfilled positions, but this only covers part of the existing gap.
Around 650 million euros were already spent on skilled worker qualification programs in 2019 and 2020, but many of the measures taken so far have been classified as inadequate according to the IAB.
Indian specialists: high expectations – disappointing reality
India, with 1.3 billion inhabitants, is considered a major location for IT worldwide. The number of workers in these sectors is growing by around one million every month. But despite high expectations, many Indian specialists have left Germany and opted for Great Britain or the US. The reasons: the average annual salary for IT specialists in the US is around $70 000 to $85 000 compared to around 50 000 euros in Germany as well as the language barrier. For many highly qualified workers, a job in Germany is simply not worth it.
There is also another cause for concern: The list of the nationalities to receive German state allowances in 2026:
Germans: 6 percent
Turks:17 percent
Iraqis: 42 percent
Afghans: 48 percent
Syrians: 56 percent
Ukrainians: 66 percent
Indians: 72 percent
Social tensions caused by immigration
In addition to the economic aspects, the social impact of immigration should not be underestimated. German society is already divided by the current discussions about migration. Studies show that around 72 percent of Germans see migration as a potential risk to their own economic and personal security. A strategy that relies almost exclusively on immigration from India could therefore also exacerbate existing tensions.
A public health issue
Migrants not only “enrich” crime statistics, but also public health. It has long been known that immigrants bring along diseases that were long ago defeated in the EU.
Diphtheria, a life-threatening, highly contagious infectious disease, has returned to the EU, for example. The most common is pharyngeal diphtheria, whose pathogen causes severe inflammation in the throat and larynx area. In the past, the inflammation usually led to suffocation. But even today, around half of infections are fatal without treatment. Even with treatment, around one in ten patients do not survive.
There is currently a diphtheria outbreak in Berlin and Brandenburg. The person affected is a ten-year-old boy. The Havelland Health Department immediately initiated “investigations and measures to protect close contacts in private and school environments” because the pathogens are transmitted by droplet infection. The Berlin Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has already registered two cases of diphtheria each this year. In 2023 there was one case in Berlin, eleven cases in Brandenburg, one case in Berlin in 2022 and four cases in Brandenburg.
According to the RKI, the Europe-wide increase in cases is due to an international outbreak among “refugees”.
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