Since the expansion of the so-called Western Balkan regulation, the number of workers from the region has doubled. From June to November of this year, the authorities granted nearly 25,000 work permits to people from six countries: The total number of permits issued in the previous year was the same, as shown by an answer from the Federal Ministry of Labour to a question from the FDP faction, which the “New Osnabrück Times” (Tuesday edition) reported.
This has fully exhausted the doubling of the quota from 25,000 to 50,000 per year, which the government had decided on the previous year for the six countries. Most of the workers came from Kosovo (5,564) and Serbia (4,239).
The FDP faction’s vice chairman, Konstantin Kuhle, is now calling not only for a further “generous” increase in the quota but also for a simpler work immigration for people from many other and much larger countries. “The purpose of the so-called Western Balkan regulation is to reduce irregular migration to the asylum system through a simple access to the German labor market” Kuhle said to the NOZ.
The presented numbers show the “full success” of the regulation, so it should be applied to other states from which people are currently submitting asylum applications, although they actually want to work in the German labor market. The countries the FDP faction has identified include, according to Kuhle, India, Vietnam, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Morocco, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan.