Leading economists welcomed Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) s plan to speed up asylum seekers’ access to Germany’s labour market. “From an economic point of view the initiative points in the right direction” said Ifo president Clemens Fuest in an interview with the “Handelsblatt” Tuesday edition. He added that Germany has a strong interest in bringing migrants into the workforce and that a smoother entry would help achieve that goal and promote integration.
DIW president Marcel Fratzscher described the minister’s proposal as “wise and long overdue”. He expects that the measure will deliver noticeable economic stimulus, pointing out that Germany faces a “tremendous labour‑shortage problem”. He believed that the benefits would be felt especially by small and medium‑sized enterprises. However, Fratzscher cautioned that quicker labour‑market access should be just one part of a broader policy package. He called for greater investment in training and for long‑term pathways to stay in the country, so that there are stronger incentives for companies to invest in apprenticeships.
Winfried Kluth, chair of the Advisory Council for Integration and Migration, adopted a more restrained stance. While he found it understandable that the measure would ease pressure on social‑security funds, he warned that its impact on the labour market might be limited because employers would still retain full discretion over who they hire. Kluth also criticized the Interior Ministry’s planned cuts to integration courses, arguing that such reductions would likely increase social‑security burdens in the long run.
