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Compared to 2008, the number of EU foreigners in Germany has doubled. Most immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe. The immigrants represent a great potential for the German economy. The BQ-Portal offers comprehensive information on foreign vocational qualifications and thus creates greater acceptance for foreign credentials.
The majority of recognition notifications are granted to applicants trained in Syria. Doctor is the most common profession among Syrian applicants. Further recognition notifications are issued for office clerks, dentists, pharmacists, general care nurses and IT specialists. In this section you can find the detailed statistics also for Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Iran and Serbia.
On September 14, The Federal Statistical Office published the statistics on the Recognition Act for the reference year 2016. Since the Act came into effect in 2012, 86,514 applications for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications were filed, the Federal Statistical Office reports. In 2016, 23,028 new applications were submitted. This is a 14 percent increase over the previous year. The share of those who received a positive ruling is very high. The made up 76,5 percent of all applicants in 2016. In 66,4 percent of cases (19,845 cases), full recognition was granted and in 10,1 percent the partial one. 20,2 percent of applicants have to complete a formalized additional training in order to be able to work in their profession. Only in 3,4 percent of cases, no equivalence could be established between a credential obtained abroad and a corresponding German qualification.
Every year, the BIBB Recognition Monitoring Project takes a closer look at recognition figures. Applications for federal occupations saw growth of 10 percent compared to the previous year. 34,700 new applications for federal occupations were received in the recognition offices in 2021 ; 41% of these – and therefore significantly more than in previous years – were submitted from abroad, in particular from third countries.
The shortage of skilled workers in Germany has been increasing across all sectors for years and is slowing the German economy. A recent study by German Economic Institute (IW) shows that many skilled workers are lacking, especially in occupations with unequal gender ratios.
As in 2021, the highest number of applications came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by the Philippines, Serbia, and Syria. The Netherlands has the highest positive recognition rate in 2022 with at 94 percent, closely followed by Latvia, as well as Hungary, Switzerland, Lithuania, Austria and the Czech Republic, which also have positive recognition rates of over 90 percent.
As in 2020, the most frequent applications come from Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is fol-lowed by the Philippines, Serbia, and Syria. The positive recognition rate in 2021 for Latvia with 94 percent is the highest. It is closely followed by the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Hungary, which also have positive recognition rates of over at 90 percent.
The majority of recognition notifications is granted to the applicants from Poland. The general care nurses stand here on the first place. Then come physiotherapists and doctors, followed by non-regulated professions such as office clerks, sellers and motor vehicle mechatronics technicians.
The second report on the Recognition Act adopted by the Federal Cabinet last month gives a positive assessment of the act. The experience of three years since its enactment shows that the Recognition Act contributes considerably to increasing attractiveness of Germany for a foreign skilled workforce.
In most OECD European countries and in the United States, labour migration in 2022 was at a 15 year record level. Year-on-year increases in the primary destination countries were striking: the number of new permanent-type labour migrants increased by 59% in Germany.