Ukrainian Institute for the Future -

At the beginning of the week, Germany adopted the long-awaited immigration law, which will have major implications for the Eastern European countries and the future development of the German labor market. This law will simplify the procedure of obtaining work visas for immigrants, and also will expand their opportunities to relocate to Germany and find a job there.

According to The Federal Employment Agency of Germany, every second job in the country is taken by a foreigner. By the time of this year`s September, Germany has already registered 1.5 million migrant workers from Eastern Europe. There are 422 thousands of Poles and 349 thousands of Romanians among them. Another 614 thousands of employed foreigners are citizens of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. There are many Ukrainians among labor migrants.

The demographic crisis, and the existing crisis of the liberal-democratic system, very clearly manifested in Germany during the last 8-10 years when the traditional political landscape began to change under the pressure of global transformations and the rise of alternative anti-globalist forces.

The law became a personal political victory for Angela Merkel and her shaky coalition alliance. However, the adoption of the new law is bad news for Eastern Europe. Germany is turning on its “hoover” and will suck up the labor resources of states that are suffering from a shortage of workforce and from population ageing.