Germany: Guest workers, asylum, managed migration

Germany recently made a historic shift from being “not a country of immigration” to a country striving to manage the migration of foreign professionals in a manner that would be beneficial to increased economic and job growth. Germany’s first-ever regulated immigration system was signed into law in June 2002. It was challenged in national elections in September 2002, and survived the test of the voters, but was successfully challenged in court on the grounds of a formal error in parliamentary procedures. Viewed over the past 40 years, Germany initially experienced a guest worker era during which unskilled workers arrived, in the 1990s it was confronted with large numbers of asylum seekers and ethnic Germans, and most recently Germany resorted to the introduction of a small “green card” programme to develop a managed migration system for professionals in a unifying and expanding Europe.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions