Green cards spark immigration debate

Chancellor Schroeder's Green Card scheme has unleashed a debate over immigration policy

By the BBC's Patrick Bartlett in Frankfurt

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called on Germans not to let fear of immigration deprive the country of skilled workers from abroad.

The German leader wants to extend a controversial scheme introduced last year to tackle a skills shortage created by the internet.

Since last summer, thousands of computer specialists, many of them from India, have been given Green Card work permits to come to Germany.

But with seven million foreigners already living in the country, the scheme has provoked a highly charged debate about German immigration policy.

Ricco Deutscher, co-founder of Flatfox, a small software company in Frankfurt, says without the Green Card system his business would have ground to a halt.

Green Cards have opened a door to a discussion over the economic necessity of immigration

The company, which develops software for online advertising and marketing, has recently hired four computer experts from Asia.

"There's no way without the Green Card for us," he said. "Information Technology is our core competence and we need the right skills in the right place."

Narinder Soni, in his 20s, joined Flatfox a few months ago. As a Green Card holder, he has to be paid a minimum salary of almost $50,000 a year.

Even so, he says many Indian computer specialists prefer to go to America or Britain, where lower taxes, a common language, and the presence of settled Indian communities offer a more attractive package.

"There are lots of adverts for work in America and Britain," says Mr Soni, "but we hardly find anything related to the German IT Industry. That must be a disadvantage for Germany."

That may explain why so far just 5,000 of the 20,000 available German Green Cards have been awarded.

Businesses complain that the conditions are too restrictive with residence permits limited to five years, and the spouses of holders not being allowed to work.

Defining new laws

In response to the complaints, the government has set up a special commission which will try to reconcile the country's need for skilled workers with German fears about immigration.

"Green Cards have finally opened a door to a discussion of the economic necessity of immigration," explains Commission member Frank Niethammer. "But it is also clear that Green Cards aren't as effective we hoped they would be, because we're not the only country in the world looking for qualified IT staff."

In a country with almost four million unemployed, defining a modern immigration law to make Germany more attractive to skilled foreign workers is highly controversial.

In India, home to a booming software industry, IT companies say Germany is overlooking the internet's ability to transfer know-how down a telecom line.

Company Green Cards?

Most of the work can be done offshore in India with only small teams required to install the software programmes on location.

Rajendra Pawar chairman of NIIT, one of India's biggest software businesses, said: "Our view is that it is possible for German companies to get the software they need, without having to move large numbers of people. Instead of giving the Green Cards to individuals, they should give them to companies."

Nonetheless, the arguments over computer experts have provided the catalyst for a long overdue reform of German immigration policy.

As other industries demand to be allowed to recruit foreign professionals too, it's clear it's an issue Germany's politicians can no longer afford to side-step.