Berlin seeks faster path to work for asylum-seekers

Migrant surge comes amid lack of skilled labor

BERLIN — The German government has approved legislation that would allow asylum-seekers to start working sooner and a plan to stiffen punishment for people who smuggle migrants.

The package backed by the Cabinet on Wednesday, which still requires parliamentary approval, is the latest in a series of steps taken recently by the government as it tries to defuse migration as a major political problem. The issue was one of several that led to a poor showing in state elections last month for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s quarrelsome three-party coalition and gains for a far-right party.

Last week, ministers approved legislation intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. On Monday, Scholz will hold a meeting with Germany’s 16 state governors expected to center on responses to migration.

Shelters for migrants and refugees have been filling up across Germany in recent months and Scholz, who faces enormous pressure on migration from the opposition and elsewhere, has said that “too many are coming.” The country also has seen more than 1 million Ukrainians arrive since the start of Russia’s war in their homeland.

Even as it struggles with the new arrivals, the government also is grappling with a shortage of skilled labor.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that, under the government’s plan, asylum-seekers will be allowed to start working after three to six months in Germany, down from nine months now.

On top of an existing plan to attract more skilled workers, “we must also use as best we can the professional potential and qualification of people who already live in Germany,” she said. “To do that, we must get them into work as quickly as possible.”

People whose asylum applications have failed but for various reasons can’t be deported will, as a rule, be given permission to work in the future, Faeser added. But those who come from nations deemed “safe countries of origin” and have no case to stay, or refuse to disclose their identity, still won’t be allowed to work.

A senior lawmaker with the conservative opposition said the government was going too far in easing migrants into work quickly. Andrea Lindholz said that is desirable for “people with clear prospects of staying” but complained that the plan also would ease access to work for people who have no right to stay or where it isn’t yet clear whether they will be allowed to stay.

While getting more migrants into the labor market, the government also wants to signal that it is cracking down on people smugglers.

Faeser said its plan calls for most offenses involving smuggling to be punished with a minimum of one year in prison, up from six months now. It foresees a sentence of between 10 years and life for smuggling resulting in death.