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  Bye Bye Deutschland: More and More Leave Germany Behind

Bye Bye Deutschland More and More Leave Germany Behind

By Julia Bonstein, Alexander Jung, Sebastian Matthes and Irina Repke

Part 3: Part III: "Germany has boxed itself in"

In the past year, only 900 highly qualified workers have applied for and been issued a residency permit -- which should come as no surprise given the daunting requirements. Only those who earn more than about €84,000 a year or hold prominent positions in scientific fields are permitted to settle permanently in Germany. Entrepreneurs are required to invest a million euros and create 10 new jobs if they hope to seek their fortunes in Germany. A young American doctor interested in moving to Germany wouldn't stand a chance.

"Germany has boxed itself in," says Klaus Bade, a historian and migration expert from the northern city of Osnabrück. Critical of his country's isolationist strategy, Bade believes that "this will not work in the long run without compromising innovative strength."

Germany, with its aging and shrinking population, is in fact dependent upon qualified immigrants. If only to maintain its current population, it would need 200,000 to 300,000 foreign immigrants each year. But last year only 80,000 came into the country.

Another unmistakable trend is that those countries that actively control immigration are far better off economically. In Canada, Australia and the United States, the economy is growing at a steady clip and faster than in Germany, and jobless rates are also consistently lower in these countries. The widespread fear that immigrants take away jobs from local inhabitants seems unfounded.

A program initiated by the Central Council of Jews in Germany is also unlikely to encourage the country's lawmakers to enact modern immigration law. The organization recently introduced a point system for Jewish immigration. Under the system, younger Jews with university degrees and strong German language skills will be given preference for residency permits. Could this be a model for the national government? Under no circumstances, say officials at the interior ministry, who insist that there will be no paradigm shift in Germany's immigration policy.

Not so perfect as they had imagined

And so instead of intelligently controlling immigration, Germany continues to erect barriers. Highly skilled foreign workers will continue to avoid Germany and, conversely, the country's young elites will venture out into the world.

And yet for many their new lives are not always as rosy as they had expected. They paint an idealized picture of their new home and are all-too-often shocked to discover, upon closer inspection, that things aren't nearly as perfect as they had imagined.

For example, who actually knows that Austria assesses a higher maximum tax than Germany? Or that workers in Great Britain don't receive nearly as much of their salary should they fall ill? And who is familiar with the fine print that requires higher-earning workers to pay far more into the Swiss social security fund, or that a day-care spot in Zürich can cost upwards of 100 francs a day? And does anyone know that employees in Canada are not entitled to their 14 days of vacation until they have worked for a minimum period of time? For most German emigrants, the rude awakening doesn't happen until they are already abroad.

Many emigrants must also admit to themselves that although they are entering a new chapter in their lives, they themselves have not changed, nor have all their weaknesses and peculiarities. Finding a job in New Zealand, for example, is not so easy after all when one doesn't speak English well. Besides, not everyone can cope with the laid-back mañana mentality in the more southern latitudes. So many things are different, even if the differences may only be minor.

For example, Julia Arneth, 33, discovered that train schedules are unreliable in Great Britain. In February, Hamburg native Arneth moved to London, where she now works as an architect. "I never had anything that was really solid in Germany," she says. But now she is truly appreciative of the advantages of Germany's reasonably reliable public transportation system.

When she got a toothache after her first few weeks in London but was unable to get an appointment with a dentist, Arneth realized that there are some things she does miss. "We are really quite well off in Germany." Arneth is young and she takes a laid-back approach to Britain's idiosyncrasies. But the older an emigrant is, the more difficult a time he will have adjusting to his new environment. That's one rule of thumb. Another is that the farther away the destination, the more difficult it is to become acclimated -- until at some point emigrants begin to feel homesick.

Some want to come back

Germans are increasingly calling hotlines when they discover that living abroad isn't quite what they expected and desperately want to return home. A man who recently called a Protestant hotline for German emigrants in Hamburg said that when his plans to establish a company abroad failed, he was forced to work on a plantation to scrape together the money to fly himself and his family back to Germany.

Others toy with the idea of returning out of conviction, not economic necessity. Academics, in particular, often spend only a limited time in their self-imposed exiles and, after a few years abroad, return to Germany to continue their careers. And when they do, they bring along knowledge and experience. Indeed, the "brain drain" can even be desirable if, at some point, it works in reverse and former emigrants return home with their skills and expertise enriched by the experience abroad.

However, the move back to Germany is often more difficult than expected. Halvard Bönig, 39, a pediatrician specializing in hematology, would move back to Germany in a heartbeat. In his job at a university in Seattle, he investigates more effective methods of bone marrow transplantation. But it would be a step back for Bönig to return to Germany, where very few university hospitals offer chairs in experimental research, and where the few positions that are available are generally filled internally.

Bönig has been working in Seattle since 2002 and believes that conditions there are ideal for his field of research. "If someone has a good idea here, he writes a proposal and stands a good chance of getting the necessary funding," he says. But, at the bottom of his heart, Bönig wants to go home. The Americans he has met are too materialistic for his taste, and he even feels a bit uneasy about the idea of helping boost America's status in the world of academic research with his efforts. "I would rather do what I'm doing here back in Germany."

But employers back in Germany are not exactly knocking at Bönig's door. The Germans have apparently not yet realized that the entire world is competing for the best minds, says Thomas Bauer, a labor economist from the central German city of Essen. Germany, says Bauer, is by no means especially appealing to potential talent. The tax burden is too high, earnings are too low and social pressure to keep up with the better-paid professionals is too high. "This is a real turn-off, especially for the highly qualified," says Bauer, who believes that this causes "tremendous damage" to Germany's image as a place to live and work.

A great deal at stake

There is a great deal at stake. The word gets around quickly at home when qualified people emigrate to other countries and are successful there. This encourages others to emulate them. Motivated by the success of the pioneers, they too decide to take the plunge, pack their bags and find the one country on earth where their dreams can become reality. Ultimately, what begins as a trickle becomes a wave.

Klaus Dittmers, 34, a geologist from the northern city of Bremerhaven, reports that he was greeted with open arms in Oslo when he began working for a supplier to the oil industry in the Norwegian capital in April. "The Norwegians say to themselves: 'We need these people.'"

Dittmers was living off of unemployment benefits until April, when he decided that he could no longer stomach being idle. The oil exploration industry is booming in Norway, and geologists are in demand. Dittmers made the decision that is now changing his life.

He says that he can easily imagine staying in Norway. Dittmers is learning the language in a course paid for by the government. He is even considering buying a house somewhere between the country's fjords and mountains. "I like the country more and more every day."

Another German lost.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan