A new survey has revealed that Germany continues to attract many foreign skilled workers despite many having claimed they face discrimination in the country.
According to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) survey, Germany is one of the most popular European Union countries among skilled workers from non-EU countries.
However, despite the country’s attractiveness, it has been disclosed that many foreign skilled workers in Germany have reported discrimination and racism, with them saying that the extent of these issues exceeded their expectations before relocating to the country for work purposes.
According to Deutsche Welle, the survey started to monitor the professional trajectories of around 30,000 highly skilled individuals who expressed their interest in Germany as a potential employment location in August 2022.
One year later, the research revealed that only about five per cent of those interested had actually relocated to Germany for work purposes.
Over half of those who relocated to Germany said that they faced discrimination when looking for accommodation. In addition, around 37 per cent per cent said that they faced discrimination when visiting different shops and places to eat.
In addition to the above-mentioned, Deutsche Welle notes that another 15 per cent said that they faced discrimination by the German police, and around 28 per cent said that they faced discrimination in their workplace.
The survey further revealed that more than half of those who arrived in the country were in the field of IT and engineering. Additionally, healthcare workers represented around ten per cent of those who entered Germany for work purposes.
Germany is currently dealing with shortages in different sectors throughout the country. To help the country with the shortages, the government has already taken some measures to attract more foreign workers.
Recent projections show that Germany will see sharp labour shortages in the next 25 years. Taking into account the ageing population, the German authorities have said that the country expects to need 280,000 to 690,000 additional nurses by the year 2049.
The German Federal Statistical Office forecast suggests that the need for nurses throughout the country is expected to increase from 1.62 million in 2019 to 2.15 million by 2049.
Considering such a forecast, it has been suggested that the country needs to take action and make sure that it will be able to cover the needs, whether that is by training the population or attracting workers from other countries.
