Daily Times

On March 1, 2020, Germany enforced its new Skilled Immigration Act, which claims to extend opportunities for qualified professionals and skilled workers from outside the European Union to come to work and live in Germany. Currently, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), in coalition with the Green party, has been ruling over Germany since December 8, 2021. Scholz was the Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the fourth term of the previous Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in 2018.

In coalition with the Greens, the SDP saw its rise in the 1998 federal elections, which made Gerhard Schröder Germany’s Chancellor. The SDP again won the 2002 elections but got defeated in 2005 by Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner, Christian Social Union (CSU). Under Chancellor Merkel, the centre-right CDU-CSU coalition ruled over Germany from 2005 to 2021. Merkel’s four terms spanning sixteen years swayed Germany by seeing the rise of far-right ultranationalist political parties such as Alternative for Germany and the National Democratic Party.

Problems with the SDP are two: first, it is a socialist party working in the domain of capitalism; and second, it is a centre-left party functional in the society of centre-right wingers. Both factors hastened the downfall of Schröder in 2005. Along with Schröder, not only did his reform agenda (Agenda 2010) fizzle out, but his immigration law (introduced in March 2002)–to invite professionals and skilled workers from other countries, especially developing countries–also dissipated. Through the law, which was introduced for the first time since the 1970s, Schröder wanted to make German society multi-cultural and workplaces competitive.

Who knows more than the streets of Berlin the way foreign professionals and skilled workers were hounded out of Germany? After 2002, in the dying years of Schröder’s rule or the rising years of Merkel domination, foreign professionals and skilled workers were scoffed at in research institutes and other workplaces, and made jobless with their research and working rights snatched. Schröder had won the 2002 elections with the promise of not cutting the social security system, but he reformed the system to improve the economy. This is why it is said that though Schröder’s reform project, Agenda 2010, was the major cause of unemployment in the labour market and deterioration in the welfare system in the early 2000s, foreign professionals and skilled workers were considered culprits, who had secured their employment replacing the locals in Germany.

In Germany, a competitive work environment is a curse for a foreign professional or skilled worker because the environment refuses to be inclusive.

On the other hand, to ensure her rise, Merkel remained successful in instigating right-wing nationalism in the Germans. Foreign professionals and skilled workers were condemned publicly as bread snatchers (Ausländer sind Brotschnäpper). She openly condemned multiculturalism in Germany and raised slogans such as multiculturalism has failed in Germany (Multi kulti ist gescheitert). Her followers followed suit. Work places and even research institutes reverberated with the slogans: Germany is not a land of immigration (Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland), Say ‘no’ to immigration (Sag nein zur Einwanderung), German jobs for the Germans only (Deutsche jobs nur fär die Deutschen), Foreigners are criminals (Ausländer sind verbrecher), Children instead of Indians (read, Pakistanis) (Kinder statt Indianer), Foreigners pollute our living space (Ausländer verschmutzen unseren Lebensraum), and Foreigners are not welcome in Germany (Ausländer sind nicht willkommen in Deutschland).

Unfortunately, Schröder’s government was not accountable to foreign professionals and skilled workers who were allured to reach Germany. They were abandoned. Labour courts got inundated with lawsuits. Most sufferers were Asians (mostly Indians and Pakistanis), South Africans and South Americans (mostly Brazilians). They were mistreated publicly for being the sin of Schröder.

Now, after sixteen years, the SDP is back in power and has brought old wine into a new bottle. In a video message, Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, utters, “Make it in Germany,” which offers an excellent work environment to foreign professional and skilled workers. Perhaps, Habeck is unaware that, during her four terms in power, Merkel kept on claiming to be a warden of German competitiveness (Deutsche Wettbewerbsfähigkeit) and a guarantor of keeping non-Germans out of Germany, a modern variation of the slogan, Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil), a nationalist motto expressing Nazi’s ideal of a racially strong relationship between a person (blood) and the land (soil) excluding foreigners. The slogan was also expressed in the refrain, local jobs for the locals (Lokale Arbeitsplätze für die Einheimischen).

In Germany, the problem is not only with racism but also with the Germans’ delusion about their unmatched competitiveness. Persisting with the obsession, the Germans loath any foreigner who performs better. In Germany, a competitive work environment is a curse for a foreign professional or skilled worker because the environment refuses to be inclusive. When in Germany, the Germans like foreigners who work under them, but they dislike the foreigners who compete with them.

The Skilled Immigration Act also makes a provision for the contract of employment (Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis) which should be signed between the German employer and a foreign employee. This is another problem area. During the rising days of Merkel, German employers violated all such contracts by terminating them prematurely and with impunity even when these were written in the German language. Violators disrespected their own language. Issues landed in labour courts which favoured the locals against the foreigners on one pretext or another. German media observed iniquitous silence on the events.

The assumption driving the current Skilled Immigration Act is that who remembers what happened sixteen years ago in Germany with foreign professionals and skilled workers? To the utter dismay of both Scholz and Habeck, victims of that crime are still around and on the watch for such an offence which could harm fellow countrymen: what happened to us should not happen to others. The final point is this: how can Scholz and Habeck guarantee that Merkel’s sixteen years remained racially unproductive and socially inconsequential? No sane foreigner is ready to waste their time and jeopardize their lives in Germany.

The writer can be reached at qaisarrashid @yahoo.com.