"Blue Card" or national qualification offensive - the future of the German research landscape

With its "Blue Card" the European Commission hopes to attract more talent from third countries, but wouldn't it be more effective to invest in better training at home? Annette Schavan, Federal Minister for Education and Research, discusses the qualification initiative "Advancement via Education" that the federal cabinet approved on 9 January 2008. It contains measures to increase equal opportunity in education, to improve movement within the educational system and to create innovative impulses. It is becoming evident, however, that Germany cannot manage without a targeted immigration of specialists. Faced with the very heterogeneous labor market situation in Europe, a uniform regulation can never meet the needs of all countries equally. For this reason national immigration solutions should be given priority over a Europe-wide "Blue Card". From the viewpoint of a scientist and university teacher Bernhard Kempen, president of the German University Association, there is complete sympathy with the EU initiative since science in particular lives from mobility, and for the university as an institution cross-border exchanges are vital. Unfortunately, it is doubtful whether Europe is attractive enough in the international competition for the best minds. For this reason, additional funding for ensuring educational quality are all the more important. For Jürgen Wuttke, German Employers' Association (BDA), it is necessary to give a clearly positive signal particularly for the target audience of the highly qualified immigrants and to facilitate their residency permission. At the same time, the activation and qualification of the domestic employee potential must not be neglected. In the opinion of August-Wilhelm Scheer, president of BITKOM, both the national specialist market as well as immigration laws must be modernised and international marketing of Germany as a place of employment improved.