Foreign Doctors and Engineers Receive Warmer Welcome in Germany
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Germany needs more professionals like these doctors in Leipzig to keep its economic motor humming.
(© picture-alliance/ZB)
An increasing number of doctors and engineers from outside the EU are coming to work in Germany. Only 349 non-European engineers were given a working permit for 2010. Just one year later it was 1,385, a nearly 300-percent surge. New statistics released by the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit - BA), reported by the nationally distributed newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, also show a positive trend for doctors. Last year 1,351 doctors from non-EU countries were given the right to work in Germany. That is a 50-percent gain compared to 2010. BA board member Raimund Becker told the newspaper that the boost in engineers is particularly encouraging.
Skilled laborers from outside European borders who possess university degrees in human medicine, vehicle manufacturing, as well as mechanical or electrical engineering by the end of July 2011 no longer had to go through a priority check – the Vorrangprüfung required by German law in most third party cases to ensure that no German or EU citizen is being passed over for foreign workers.
