Greencard (Germany)
In Germany, the so-called green card was the abbreviation for the “immediate program to cover the need for IT specialists” that existed between 2000 and the end of 2004 . Experts in the field of information technology (IT) who came from a country outside the European Union and not from Switzerland received a five-year residence permit and work permit that were subject to certain conditions as part of the green card .
development
The “immediate program to cover the IT specialist needs” expired at the end of 2004 and was replaced by a new immigration law that continued to give IT specialists the privilege of immigrating to Germany.
The Green Card came into force in Germany on August 1, 2000 as the “Ordinance on Residence Permits for Highly Qualified Foreign Specialists in Information and Communication Technology (IT-ArGV)”. With the “Immediate Program to Cover IT Skills Needs”, Schröder's red-green government wanted to quickly meet the need for experts in the field of information technology by recruiting skilled workers from a country outside the European Union (not Switzerland ) (IT) cover.
Comparison of the German and US green cards
The conceptual similarity to the US green card is misleading because the German green card was restricted in the following points:
- First, the German green card only allowed residence permits for a maximum period of five years. In addition, the recruiting period was initially set at three years. The scheme should therefore expire after a total of eight years; However, the recruitment period was extended by 17 months to December 31, 2004 in order to bridge the time until the new immigration law came into force .
- Second, the target group was defined very precisely. The green cards were only awarded to specialists in the IT industry who either had a corresponding university degree or who earned at least 50,000 euros.
- Third, the number of green cards to be issued was initially limited to 10,000; After a year this number was increased to 20,000 as planned.
Reception and use
The number of guaranteed work permits between August 1, 2000 and December 31, 2004 was 17,931, whereby the number of actually issued work permits for first-time employment had only reached 13,041, which means that actually only 13,041 foreign workers received the green card.
The green card was discussed intensively in the German public. Business representatives welcomed the regulation, but Jürgen Rüttgers ( CDU ) tried to fight it with a postcard campaign and is the originator of the motto “Children instead of Indians”.
It is difficult to assess the success of the green card because it was overshadowed by the collapse of the new economy and the new market due to the so-called " dot-com bubble ". Most of the experts who came to Germany with the green card were either computer scientists or electrical engineers; according to nationality, most came from India, and Eastern Europeans and Ethiopians were also often represented. The majority found a job in Stuttgart, Munich or Frankfurt am Main, and very few went to northern and eastern Germany. Many have now returned to their home countries.
With the introduction of the Immigration Act, the green card regulation was included in the employment ordinance, so that the separate "green card ordinance" became superfluous. Since then, it has been possible to recruit IT specialists abroad if required, without a numerical limit on contingents. However, employment must be paid for salaries customary in the industry as part of an employment relationship that is subject to social security contributions in Germany. Since January 1, 2009, this regulation has been extended to all academic professions. Unions see the green card as an invitation to wage dumping, and a study of the US IT industry confirms it.
See also
- Blue Card (EU)
literature
- Franziska Schreyer: Between privilege and precariousness: Green Card Migrants in Germany . From: Fantomas No. 6 from winter 04/05
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Office for Migration and Refugees: Migration Report 2005 , pp. 77–82, 22 August 2006
- ↑ Katharina Finke: IT specialists: Blue Card hardly attracts specialists from India , Spiegel Online , May 11, 2012
- ↑ Jan Schüßler: Study: US IT Industry Does Not Need Foreign Skilled Workers , Heise online , April 30, 2013