Merkel urges Germans to accept immigration policy changes

In a game-changing speech delivered earlier this week German chancellor Angela Merkel urged the German people to face up to the hard facts of essential changes in immigration policy.

Merkel’s speech at a government-backed conference focused on Germany’s demographic challenges and the social legacy of unchecked immigration over decades. Looking forward to this September’s federal elections and her hopes to gain a third term in office, she stressed that the problem of the country’s shrinking, ageing population must be addressed to avoid a major loss of economic competitiveness.

As part of her speech, Merkel introduced her platform for changes to immigration law to boost the numbers of skilled overseas workers the country needs to replace the loss to retirement of six million people by 2025. The chancellor admitted that Germany has a significantly poor reputation as a host country for migrant workers, and plans to open the doors to younger, highly skilled migrants from outside the EU as well as from all EU member states.

Since 2011, Germany has been a focus for well-qualified immigrants from poorer, crisis-hit nations including Greece and Spain, and Merkel is expected to remove the unofficial ban on overseas workers from eastern EU member states such as Bulgaria and Romania. During the last decades of the 20th century, Germany’s reputation as a host country was badly damaged by its less than welcoming treatment of its huge number of Turkish guest workers.