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The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

washingtonpost.com

21–30 of 92 posts

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#21

What is the chance of moving to Germany from the US without a college degree, but rather with five years industry experience and a handful of certifications, plus a good grasp of the German language? Would companies generally go for that, or would German authorities allow that?

That depends on the company, in startups it's not going to be a problem but in larger more traditional companies HR is going to filter out your application before it hits the desk of whoever is actually hiring.

German authorities will definitely complicate it as well.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#22

What is the chance of moving to Germany from the US without a college degree, but rather with five years industry experience and a handful of certifications, plus a good grasp of the German language? Would companies generally go for that, or would German authorities allow that?

Yes, authorities will allow if your skill/experience is IT (which I assume it is) and have a job offer with salary more than 48600 euros per year because they have shortage of manpower in this industry.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#23
post #11

What is the chance of moving to Germany from the US without a college degree, but rather with five years industry experience and a handful of certifications, plus a good grasp of the German language? Would companies generally go for that, or would German authorities allow that?

As far as I can tell, you need to have a degree. "Who can apply for the EU Blue Card: ...he or she has a German or an accredited foreign or a university degree that is comparable to a German one" http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/ http://www.apply.eu/BlueCard/

Degree is required, but not for IT

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#24
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent prices have definitely exploded and there are no signs that the upwards trend will stop anytime soon. Nevertheless they are still low compared to cities like London or Paris. Furthermore software developers in Berlin are in very high demand. If you speak English fluently and are a good software developer, getting a job in Berlin should be no problem.

What are examples?

If you mean examples about rent prices, a 1-room apartment in Charlottenburg (nice location) costs around €600. Similar apartment in Wedding (a bit further north) is around €500.

For reference, a regular programming job should be around €1500 per month after taxes, while a month worth of supermarket food costs around €250 (although the right habits can shave almost a hundred from that). Add another €100 for a month of unlimited public transport, and you are set.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#25
post #20
post #3

The various sides of the immigration debate are talking past each other. This article describes a German program that takes high skill people like the architect profiled in the article, while those opposed to immigration are mainly concerned about the large numbers of low-skill people who are not interested in assimilating. The anti-immigrant folks in Britain and France aren't worried about Mr. Pinol. They're worried…

Is there something wrong with self-governance, as long as your rules don't violate the laws of the land?

We get a lot of daft Muslim scare stories in some parts of the press here in the UK, "sharia law" being one of the favourites - this article in the Guardian tries to point out the reality:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/12/muslim-scare-st...

On closer inspection, it is clear sharia courts only have jurisdiction on civil matters and everyone must opt in to a sharia court. They only have an advisory capacity and address mainly property and financial matters, and rulings are then only enforceable by civil courts. In many cases, they are understaffed affairs, where one official settles petty disputes and draws up rudimentary documents.

So just like any other kind of alternative dispute resolution - mediation, adjudication, expert-determination, arbitration etc.

Edit - I'm actually over-stating this last bit, "sharia" law isn't nearly as strong as these formal ADR mechanisms.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#26
post #3

The various sides of the immigration debate are talking past each other. This article describes a German program that takes high skill people like the architect profiled in the article, while those opposed to immigration are mainly concerned about the large numbers of low-skill people who are not interested in assimilating. The anti-immigrant folks in Britain and France aren't worried about Mr. Pinol. They're worried…

> As for the U.S., the key difference with Germany is that our fertility rate is 1.89 (over 2.1 during the boom). Theirs is 1.36 (under 1.4 since 1990).

Please, when online (but also offline) do not use "ours" or "theirs". What is "ours" in this case? Germany or US? It is not clear from the context.

Also, if a person born in Germany goes to the US, what is "ours", what is "theirs" to s/he?

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#27

What is the chance of moving to Germany from the US without a college degree, but rather with five years industry experience and a handful of certifications, plus a good grasp of the German language? Would companies generally go for that, or would German authorities allow that?

I'd say it's possible. I had colleagues with no grasp of the German language, minor English skills and no degree because the IT Industry in Germany is terribly hungry for employees. This was in Stuttgart (southwest), but I assume it's the same accross the country.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#28
post #26
post #3

The various sides of the immigration debate are talking past each other. This article describes a German program that takes high skill people like the architect profiled in the article, while those opposed to immigration are mainly concerned about the large numbers of low-skill people who are not interested in assimilating. The anti-immigrant folks in Britain and France aren't worried about Mr. Pinol. They're worried…

> As for the U.S., the key difference with Germany is that our fertility rate is 1.89 (over 2.1 during the boom). Theirs is 1.36 (under 1.4 since 1990). Please, when online (but also offline) do not use "ours" or "theirs". What is "ours" in this case? Germany or US? It is not clear from the context. Also, if a person born in Germany goes to the US, what is "ours", what is "theirs" to s/he?

American is 1.89.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#29
post #3

The various sides of the immigration debate are talking past each other. This article describes a German program that takes high skill people like the architect profiled in the article, while those opposed to immigration are mainly concerned about the large numbers of low-skill people who are not interested in assimilating. The anti-immigrant folks in Britain and France aren't worried about Mr. Pinol. They're worried…

The article does talk about African laborers and Bulgarian demolition crews. Not high-skilled work. Also "Angela Merkel... has spoken out against immigrants relocating here merely to tap generous domestic welfare benefits." You're right that masses of low-skill immigrants is a problem, especially when they are not integrating with society. It seems Germany has this problem too ("And many Germans still call the lack o…

The "issue" with the turkish really cooled down in the last maybe 20 years. Over 50% of young people in Germany already say that Islam belongs to Germany.

Re: The new land of opportunity for immigrants is Germany

#30
I wonder how many of us commenting on this article read past the headline to take a look at the chart (displayed on the left side of the article text, as I view the article in my browser) titled "More Immigrants Moving to Germany"? That chart shows very plainly, based on OECD statistics, that the United States has a higher absolute number of immigrants each year than Germany, as it has for a long time. The striking thing about the very recent statistics is the recent higher percentage of immigrants in relation to the total population of the country (313.9 million for the United States, 81.89 million for Germany), if I'm reading the chart scale correctly,[1] although other statistics sources continue to report that the United States has a higher rate of immigration.[2] If that trend is sustained, Germany will indeed be noteworthy as a country receiving a large percentage of immigrants year on year, but let's see what happens as the immigration trend interacts with economic growth trends in Germany and in Europe generally.[3] The economy has to stay somewhat healthy in German for immigrants to desire to move there.

[1] http://www.dw.de/immigration-to-germany-at-its-highest-rate-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_net_migra...

[3] http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-14/europe-s-ec...

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