German coalition agrees on immigration law ‘to tackle labor shortages’

Germany’s coalition parties agreed on a new immigration law on Tuesday to attract more skilled workers from countries outside the European Union. The move is seen as a politically risky push to fill a record number of job vacancies and stabilize the public pension system. Record-high employment and falling joblessness have led to a tightening labor market in Europe’s largest economy, with employers struggling to staff more than a million positions. The new immigration law, agreed overnight by center-right Chancellor Angela Merkel, hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, and Social Democrat Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, risks angering those voters who already feel neglected following the arrival of more than a million refugees since 2015, Reuters reported. Seehofer said the compromise deal would remove labor-market hurdles for non-EU citizens with job qualifications and German language skills, while avoiding new incentives for refugees.