Labour Market Information for Migrants and Employers: The Case of Germany

Ulf Rinne IZA Report prepared for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) under the functional title " LINET country study on Germany: Improving Access to Labour Market Information for Migrants and Employers. " This is the draft version of a study whose final version will be included in the forthcoming IOM-LINET publication on " Access to Labour Market Information for Migrants and Employers, " to be published in March 2013. The authors acknowledge the generous support of IOM to conduct this study in which they serve as national experts for Germany. The authors thank Alexander de Vivie and Margard Ody for excellent research assistance. 1. German firms in general do not perceive increased international recruitment activities as an important instrument to counteract the imminent shortages of skilled labour. This is the case even though many firms already have experiences with the recruitment of foreign workers. 2. Despite recent improvements, firms rate Germany's immigration policy among the primary restraints preventing them to intensify foreign recruitment activities. This appears to be particularly relevant in SMEs. 3. Although still following a comparatively passive approach towards the recruitment of foreign workers, Germany has experienced an increase in net immigration in recent years. This seems related to the country's relatively good performance during the Great Recession as immigration rates from countries that were severely affected by the crisis particularly increased. 4. However, sending countries are still primarily European countries, and more specifically EU countries. Third countries play no major role. We identify informational barriers as important restraints for prospective immigrants that are especially relevant for those from third countries. 5. Germany still lacks a uniform and comprehensive approach for providing prospective immigrants the necessary information to prepare their move. Nevertheless, progress is being made, for example with the new online platform " Make it in Germany " or the FMLS campaign to recruit international specialist that will start in 2013. 6. Above-average unemployment rates of resident immigrants in Germany appear to be mainly due to barriers in the access to jobs. Immigrants need more time to find employment, but they do not find less stable job than the native population. 7. Although the empirical evidence on whether ALMP (Active Labour Market Policy) is able to mitigate immigrants' problems in the access to jobs is scarce, measures that directly target at the job search process as well as start-up subsidies appear promising. Employment subsidies, on the …