2022 marks the tenth anniversary of the Recognition Act (BQFG for short). From 2020, the corona pandemic had a strong impact on the migration of skilled workers worldwide. Nevertheless, in the same year 31,536 applications were made for professional recognition in federally regulated professions, including over 10,700 from 13 countries, which are a particular focus of skilled worker immigration.
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Migration of skilled workers: From 2020 under special conditions
The recognition of foreign professional qualifications is legally regulated by the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act (BQFG) and anchored in the Skilled Immigration Act (FEG). Since the BQFG came into force on April 1, 2012, more and more applications for recognition were made year after year until 2019.
The winter of 2019/2020 then marked the beginning of the global corona pandemic, which had far-reaching effects on the economy and numerous areas of private life. Last but not least, it acted as a brake on international migration, since cross-border mobility was severely restricted from spring 2020.
In this extraordinary situation, the FEG came into force in March of the same year, simplifying the immigration of skilled workers from third countries. A prerequisite for immigrating to Germany via this route is, in addition to the appropriate knowledge of German, the recognition of the foreign university or professional qualification. Already in 2020, despite significantly lower net immigration, there was a significant increase in applications from abroad for professional recognition for professions under federal law, which was around 11 percent (Böse/Schmitz, 2021).
In the following, the development of applications for professional recognition from 13 focus countries of skilled immigration (Baczak et al., 2020) is considered. A differentiation is made for four regional country clusters: Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Colombia), North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco), Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo) as well as India and Southeast Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam).
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Trend in recognition applications from 2012 to 2020 in four country clusters
Country cluster Latin America: In fact, the number of applications for recognition for the three Latin American countries Brazil, Mexico and Colombia cannot be described as large. In the period under review, an increase can be observed for all three countries of origin, with the intensity of the increase differing between the countries. From the time the BQFG came into force until 2015, the number of applications for recognition in all three Latin American countries was less than 100 applications. As of 2018, applications for Brazil and Mexico are increasing significantly. For 2020, too, there has been an increase in applications for these countries despite the effects of the corona pandemic. Only the applications for Colombia 2020 show a slight decrease. Overall, the increase in numbers is likely to have been positively influenced by the entry into force of the FEG 2020. In addition, the active projects to recruit nurses from Mexico and Brazil, such as the triple-win program “Nurses for Germany”, play a significant role in immigration. As a result, applications in the medical health professions dominate (BQ-Portal, 2022).
Country cluster North Africa: It is noticeable for the North Africa country cluster that the number of applications has increased almost consistently since 2012. There was also no corona-related decline in 2020. There have been slight fluctuations in the number of applications for Egyptian degrees, which peaked in 2020. In view of the large population, however, the Egyptian applications for professional recognition are at a very low level. While the number of applications for Moroccan, Tunisian and Egyptian degrees in 2012 was still 234, the total number increased to almost 2,000 applications per year when the BQFG came into force by 2020. Tunisian degrees achieved the strongest increase. Morocco has been characterized by a moderate but constantly increasing number of applications since 2012. Most of the applications from the North Africa region also relate to the health professions. There are also some applications from Morocco for the profession of IT specialist (BQ-Portal, 2022).
Country cluster Western Balkans: Despite the Western Balkans regulation, which has stipulated since 2016 that nationals of Western Balkan countries do not need recognition of their professional qualifications to access the labor market in Germany, this cluster of countries still has the highest number of applications for recognition. These have increased from 366 in 2012 to 4,824 in 2020. The increase in applications for recognition of Albanian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian professional qualifications is particularly pronounced. Bosnia and Herzegovina has consistently high numbers of applications and, despite a slight decline, was again in first place among the countries with the highest number of applications in the world in 2020 (BQ Portal, 2022). Furthermore, the continuous and steady increase in the number of applications for Kosovo shows that the recognition of Kosovar professional qualifications in Germany is becoming more relevant. The applications from the three training countries considered also relate primarily to the health professions. For craft trades, the most frequent applications for recognition in the period under review came from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the profession of electronics technician.
Country cluster India and Southeast Asia: The four countries in this cluster differ greatly in terms of the number of applications. What they have in common is that the majority of applications are for specialists from the nursing sector. Applications have increased the most for the Philippines. The main reason for this are bilateral cooperation agreements in the field of care. Although there was a notable decline in applications in 2020, the Philippines is still among the top 5 of the world’s strongest applicant countries. Indian skilled workers are also increasingly submitting applications for the recognition of their foreign professional qualifications. With a value of almost 1,000 applications in 2020, however, there is still room for improvement in terms of securing skilled workers for Germany, with targeted recruitment and qualification projects, such as the skilled worker recruitment offers of the TÜV Rheinland Academy, could help. While applications from Indonesian professionals have hardly changed since 2012 and are less than 50 applications per year, applications for Vietnamese degrees have increased slightly with the introduction of the BQFG.
Conclusion and Outlook
This report covers the development of applications for recognition up to the end of 2020 for 13 selected focus countries with particular potential for immigration of skilled workers. The analysis shows a clear upward trend in the number of applications overall and – despite the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – only a slight decrease in the numbers in 2020. The number of applications for recognition from the 13 focus countries increased from 822 in 2012 10,700 added in 2020.
The importance of professional recognition for securing skilled workers has therefore increased. On the one hand, the potential of people who already live and work here is increased, on the other hand, new potential for immigration can be tapped. In view of the skilled labor gap, which at the end of 2021 was 465,000 skilled workers across all qualification levels (Pierenkemper et al., 2022), the application figures are at a low level despite their growth. In order to attract the urgently needed foreign skilled workers for the German economy, it will be important in the next few years to efficiently use and expand the experience gained so far and to optimize processes with regard to their digitization. In addition, more bilateral cooperation agreements and targeted recruitment and qualification projects could also make an important contribution to the further development of vocational training in the countries of origin. The activities that are currently being initiated in the focus countries should help to develop the potential of the FEG even more in the future.
Notice: The short report concludes the work of the BQ-Portals at. It is the information portal for foreign professional qualifications and represents an important instrument in the implementation of the Recognition Act and the Skilled Immigration Act.
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