In the debate about recruiting more skilled workers from abroad, DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi spoke out in favor of facilitating family reunification. Not workers, but people, said Fahimi of the German Press Agency in Berlin. "And these people also have families who need permission to join them."
How important it is then that the entire family has already reached a certain language level is questionable. When the Iranian part of her own family fled from Iran to California in 1978/79, not everyone spoke perfect English. "But nobody in the USA was interested in that," said Fahimi. Fahimi said the United States would be unthinkable today if it had an immigration law like the one that Germany has had for decades. Germany should take this as an example.
Fahimi also called for easements regarding citizenship. "I have a kiosk owner in Hanover who has been working crookedly with his whole family seven days a week for over 40 years," said Fahimi. "And he's been paying taxes here for just as long. But to this day, the German state has refused him his German passport because he's not willing to give up his Turkish passport."
This issue of dual citizenship affects 90 percent of people of Turkish origin in this country. Germany has numerous agreements with other countries on dual citizenship - but not with Turkey. Fahimi: "This is group-specific discrimination that we should be ashamed of."
"Away from the exam to the welcoming culture"
Even with refugees, for whom Germany is responsible under the Geneva Refugee Convention, the conflicts in their home countries often lasted so many years that they had long since established themselves in Germany. "Let's just think of the refugee families from the Balkans at the time. They too should be given the opportunity to change their status: from refugee to citizen," Fahimi demanded.
Fahimi praised the cornerstones of a new law on the immigration of skilled workers, which the cabinet passed in November. According to the traffic light plans, non-EU citizens without a recognized qualification should also be allowed to enter the country. "The intention is to enable various forms of immigration into the labor market," said the DGB boss. "This ranges from a highly specialized IT person, for whom language acquisition can also take place later in Germany, to people who would like to work in nursing, for example, and should quickly learn German in their home country."
Even young people who have not yet completed their training and have the courage to seek their fortune somewhere else in the world should not be faced with bureaucratic hurdles. "We have to move away from the exam culture to an enabling and welcoming culture," said Fahimi.
