Quotes of the Day

Since the early 1970s, when the last of the Turkish gastarbeiters arrived, Germany has scrupulously limited the number of immigrants allowed into the country. And before the European Union admitted 10 new members last month, Germany and other E.U. states insisted that workers from the accession countries should be barred for up to seven years from holding jobs in Western Europe. Fearing the effect of cheap labor on already high unemployment — and damage to Germany's Christian heritage — politicians from the conservative opposition claimed that Germany was "not a country of immigration." So it comes as a pleasant surprise that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is suddenly rethinking that view. Last week he agreed on groundbreaking new legislation to allow large numbers of new workers to move in. "We're going to have a modern immigration law," Schröder said.

It's about time. Germany, like most other European countries, is sitting on a demographic time bomb. Without an annual influx of at least 230,000 people, Germany's population of 83 million will shrink to 51 million in 2050 and 24 million in 2100, according to Reiner Klingholz, director of the Berlin Institute for World Population and Global Development. Such a steep drop could imperil funding for Germany's state pensions. And despite a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 10.5%, almost 75,000 jobs are presently unfilled because of a shortage of skilled personnel — just the kind of people the new law is meant to attract. "Germany needs an immigration law geared to growth and employment," says Heinz Putzhammer, board member of the German Trade Union Federation. "This agreement offers the right starting point."

The deal hammered out between Schröder and the opposition Christian Democrats will allow skilled workers — Klingholz estimates about 200,000 a year — from outside Europe, as well as the new E.U. members, to get permanent residence in Germany. It will also grant work permits to thousands of foreign students who graduate from German universities each year, and allow self-employed people to set up businesses in Germany. The agreement will primarily benefit high-tech industries. They have been disappointed by Germany's "green card" program of five-year residency permits, which expires at the end of this year. Since it was implemented four years ago, only 16,500 green cards have been issued. "We're heavily dependent on foreign workers coming to Germany," says Stephan Pfisterer, head of labor and education for Bitkom, an IT industry trade group, "and this law will meet almost all our requirements."

Not everyone is so enthusiastic. Some economists say the law does not go far enough and that allowing potential immigrants to be evaluated by civil servants is a bad move. "The law will not create an environment where we can attract the high potential candidates," said Holger Schäfer, an economist at the Institute of German Economy in Cologne. "It's bureaucratic and doesn't have clear rules."

The Christian Democrats initially blocked the law because of fears that increased immigration would open the country to terrorists. Schröder finally won agreement by accepting an opposition-backed measure to have all applicants screened by the security services; "preachers of hate" — an apparent reference to extremist Muslim clergy — can be deported even if they don't break the law. "In the future, it will be easier to deport foreigners who took part in training in terror camps or who incite hatred," said Günther Beckstein, Interior Minister of Christian Social Union-ruled Bavaria.

That's got civil libertarians worried. The law should "not mean we can reject people or kick them out for expressing their opinions," says Reinhard Bütikofer, chairman of the Green Party. But Bütikofer concedes the new law will also make it easier for asylum seekers to seek residence in Germany, especially those who are threatened by non-state militias, and women who face discrimination.

Now that there's a broad agreement, the government and opposition still have a lot of niggling details to work out. They have already clashed about who should pay for the law's costly implementation: the federal government or the states. Schröder has set a deadline of June 17 to complete negotiations. Once those problems are solved, Germany's new welcome mat for immigrants could help kick-start the country's moribund economy.

• CHARLES P. WALLACE | Berlin
• Germany eases its immigration rules