In attempts to tackle the labor shortage Germany is currently facing, the FDP have decided to remove the obstacles of the difficult language and implement English as the official second language.
In many administrative offices, Germany has been suffering a massive labor shortage for high-bureaucratic jobs. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) claims that the complex German language is what is deterring people from bureaucratic employment, even if there is much need for skilled workers from abroad.
This is the second move installed by the FDP to address the massive labor shortage currently in Germany.
Last year, Olaf Scholz, leader of the pro-business FDP, introduced the ‘Chancenkarte.’ Translated to ‘opportunity card,’ this model is supposed to allow skilled workers to apply for jobs in Germany with more ease thanks to a ‘points-based green card scheme.’ So, even if applicants do not speak fluent German, there is a way to understand if they are qualified for the job thanks to the points scheme.
This green card system relied on Germany also being able to provide English applications and English caseworkers, since the newly employed through this system would not necessarily speak German.
Vogel, a member of the Bundestag committee for Labour and Social Affairs, sid that it requires a specific design, perhaps more wielding to German workers than foreign workers intending to go to Germany to find jobs.
These new methods are implemented as the German economy hit a fearful low after the pandemic. There were 844,000 job vacancies in 2022.
This hit a new record.
There were particular records of unemployment in the pharmaceutical, engineering, and IT sectors, which are essential for a country of Germany’s capacity.
This January, 764,326 vacancies have been recorded. The situation is very dire.
Andrea Nahles, the head of the Federal Employment Agency, claims that there is a dire need to fill in the gap of 400,000 skilled workers from abroad to fulfil the nation’s economic requirements.
Vogel claims that the reason Germany has less appeal than other nations for foreign workers is that German is not ‘a global language’ and is very inaccessible to the majority of the global population.
English, being already established as a global language, should therefore be sufficient to find labor in Germany.
However, this change comes with a history of retaliation. Last December 2021, when it was first suggested, it was strongly rejected by many organizations that work in administration. A spokesperson for the Civil Servants’ Association (DBB) claimed that “When it comes to ordinances and laws, the official language in this country applies for reasons of legal certainty, and that is German.”
Some fears adding a second language will only exacerbate bureaucracy and make it tenfold more monstrous and difficult. These translations may also implement legal misunderstandings and, therefore, legal risks.
There is also historical affiliation in former states of the socialist German Democratic Republic, where many older members of the population learned Russian in school rather than English.
Many conservative politicians claim that learning German is the essential key to integration into German society. Removing that necessity by implementing English translations signifies a large shift in the cultural stronghold that the German language has to its culture.
Now comes the time to balance out whether the labor shortage can truly be resolved by this change or not. And if the sacrifices to the German language will be felt or not.
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