Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sundubuman]

Germans Leave in Record Numbers, Fleeing Unemployment
By Rainer Buergin
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Koerber, an engineering technician from Viernheim, Germany, was looking for a new job. He found it -- 4,700 miles away, in Canada.

``I looked around, found a job I liked in Canada, and left Germany within two months,'' Koerber, 39, said in a telephone interview from Calgary. ``If I can get a better job abroad, and if I'm being treated better, I'm gone.''

Koerber is one of 145,000 Germans who fled the fatherland last year amid record postwar unemployment, pushing emigration to its highest level since 1954, Federal Statistics Office figures show. Last year was also the first since the late 1960s that emigrants outnumbered Germans returning home from living abroad, the statistics office said.

Even more troubling to German officials and business leaders, many were skilled workers like Koerber. The loss of such people, they say, may threaten Germany's economic competitiveness in the future.

``Many highly qualified young people are leaving our country to seek their fortunes elsewhere, while only very few top people have been attracted to Germany in recent years,'' said Ludwig Georg Braun, president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, which represents more than 3 million companies. ``This development is causing us growing concern.''

Merkel's Government

Unemployment reached 5.2 million, the highest level since World War II, in February 2005. Joblessness has declined since Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats took office last November. Still, the unemployment rate stood at 8.2 percent in June, according to internationally comparable figures published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. By the OECD's reckoning, the jobless rates in neighboring Austria and Switzerland were 4.9 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

While polls show that Germans regard unemployment as the nation's most pressing problem, they also show little confidence in Merkel's ability to tackle it. Three-quarters of 2,501 respondents in a July 12 Forsa poll said they didn't expect the government to be able to solve it, and that sentiment may drive even more workers to look outside the country.

``People say things aren't getting better in Germany, and nothing's going to change any time soon,'' said historian Simone Eick, director of the German Emigration Center in the northern port city of Bremerhaven. Indeed, ``some indicators suggest that this may be the start of mass emigration.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aaiYvU1EuM2A

Mod Edit: Shortened article and added link.

[mindmetoo]

Hrm now I haven't paid Canadian taxes since 1999 but if you're in the highest tax bracket, I don't recall your net being 75% of your gross. He is in Alberta and that may change things. And income taxes have been lowered over the years. Anyone know if this is true? In Ontario I seem to recall my net pay being more like 68% of my gross.

[dogbert]

sunbubuman, it's been 60 years now, give it a rest.

[sundubuman]

retarded post ^^^^

You think I'm trying to bash Germany?

Did you read the article?

I think the fact that 145,000 Germans, the highest number in over 50 years, left the country last year is highly newsworthy. I'd say the same thing if such numbers of Brits, or French or Americans were choosing to leave their respective countries as well.

I've heard the same trend is appearing in other countries such as the Netherlands.

[happeningthang]

Instead of trying to read into Sandub's motives...I'll just ask...

Why do you think these Germans are migrating?

[supernick]

I could be wrong, but maybe the German man is working as a contractor having to pay corporate tax which I think is 22 or 25%. There is also special taxes for people in their first year of employment, at least there was a few years ago. Immigrants and new employees get this benefit to help them settle or to get established. Don't worry, he'll have to pay more later but still less that what he would have had to pay if he was working in Germany.

There are many skilled Germans and their skills in the past have helped many countries.

[sundubuman]

Germany-Labour-Abroad
Germans don't like very much to work in their own country as one-fourth of those employed prefer to move abroad for a new job, DPA on Wednesday cited an opinion poll released by the European recruitment company Step Stone.

More than 20 percent of Germans said they would like to pack their suitcases to work in another country.

A total of 144,815 people emigrated from Germany last year which is the highest figure since 1950.

Switzerland has become the number one destination for German emigrants as some 14,409 Germans settled in the neighboring country followed by the US with (13,569), Austria (9,134), Poland (9,229) and Britain (9,012).

A high unemployment rate - hovering around 11 percent - is one of the main reasons for the latest German emigration wave.

[mindmetoo]

I heard something on NPR about how the modern German education system is in such shambles they're actually looking at the American system to figure out how to improve.

In keeping with German culture, I believe students are streamed into careers and occupations fairly early in life. If you don't betray any academic aptitude early in life, you're destined for trade school.

[JLarter]

Nothing wrong with emmigration as I'm sure it balances out the number of immigrants.
The UK had between 300,000 and 400,000 immigrants last year. If people didn't emmigrate, there would be problems.

[Junior]

[sundubuman]

this apparently is happening in Britain as well...maybe it's just increased mobility everywhere

from the August 31, 2006 edition

Britain's border problem: The British are leaving
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LONDON � They flock unstoppably through Britain's border crossings, thousands every week, posing a threat to social, demographic, and economic stability, according to some.

But this is not another verdict on the perils of immigration. This is about people moving in the opposite direction. Surprisingly, for a country obsessed about immigrants, Britons are emigrating in record numbers.
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Official data show that more than 350,000 people leave the country every year, up almost 50 percent from 10 years ago. A recent BBC survey remarkably found that 13 percent of people said they were hoping to emigrate in the near future - double the figure from a similar survey conducted three years ago.

At least 4.5 million Britons - about 8 percent of the population - now live abroad, a far bigger diaspora in percentage terms than those of other rich countries like France, Germany, and the US. Those anxious about rising immigration numbers should take note: more Britons now live overseas than the number of foreign nationals resident in Britain.

"In Britain there is an emigration culture which doesn't exist in other continental European countries," notes Frank Laczko, head of research for the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. That the British have a penchant for emigration is clear from the number of TV shows about buying property abroad, living overseas, and "a place in the sun," he says.

"If you look at France by comparison, people do not dream of living abroad," he adds. "There is not this discussion."

So who goes where and why? According to Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, an expert with the London-based Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, emigration has become far more democratic.

"It's not just about colonial officers looking for opportunities elsewhere," he says. These days, he says, it's just as likely to be a plumber taking his trade to Spain or Australia, a nurse who can make more money in the Gulf, a policeman attracted by the great outdoors of New Zealand, or middle-class retirees with a windfall from soaring property prices heading for rural France. "They aren't fleeing a sinking ship, but are going to seek out better opportunities and lifestyles," he says.

Richard Gregan, director of Overseas Emigration Visas, a company that helps some 2,000 Britons resettle overseas each year, says business is booming, with clients from a broad cross section. "We see everybody from the megawealthy to the small business owner, the tradesman and white- and blue-collar workers. The youngest are 25 and the age range goes right up to 55-year-olds."

Australia is the most popular destination, with 615,000 Britons. Despite stiff entry requirements for immigrant workers, the United States is second, with about 500,000 Britons. According to a recent survey by the ICM polling institute, the chief factors driving Britons overseas are better quality of life, high costs at home, job relocation, and yes, the weather.

Andy Rix, who has worked as an outsourcing consultant in Chicago since emigrating seven years ago, says there are plenty of things about British life that he is happy to have left behind.

"I definitely don't miss the weather," he says. "I don't miss bad service in restaurants, and I can't remember the last time I stood at a bar yelling to attract the bartender's attention. I don't miss the glass-half-empty, doom-and-gloom attitude that periodically engulfs the Brits. Once you get used to it, always looking on the bright side of everything, as most Americans do, is a better way to live your life."

David Maund, a restructuring adviser in Hong Kong, says most Britons he knows moved for reasons of career and lifestyle. He says many start out on a short-term posting and decide to prolong their stint. "The majority of my British expatriate friends are long-term expats and unlikely to return to the UK," he says.

The trend is significant because it comes at a time when Britain is becoming very touchy about the numbers moving in the opposite direction.

Migrant workers have found Britain an easy destination because of its relatively relaxed approach to newcomers. But figures showing that almost half a million East Europeans flocked to Britain to work in the two years since EU expansion (the government predicted no more than 13,000) have revived a debate about setting immigration thresholds.

John Reid, the home secretary, has started talking of "controlled" immigration. The terror threat has, moreover, convinced authorities that Britain should be less welcoming, particularly when it comes to hate preachers and radical jihadis.

Yet with a stagnating birthrate and more people heading overseas, some migration experts are warning that the government should take a much closer look at the impact of emigration on society.

Mr. Sriskandarajah says the outflow of well-educated people could hurt the workforce. "I don't want to suggest we should panic ... but I think Treasury should think about size of pensions being taken abroad," he says. He also wonders about double standards. "It's hypocritical to say we want to benefit from the positive opportunities of emigration for our people, but don't want people to come here."

Mr. Laczko highlights factors from the loss of capital overseas to the impact on Spanish health services of British retirees, to rising property prices in rural France. He notes that Australia and Ireland, with high rates of emigration, are making noises about wanting some of the brightest and best to come home or at least reinvest in their home countries.

For now, the government appears as relaxed about emigration as it is touchy about immigration. "We are not concerned about a skills deficit because there is so much positive immigration from Eastern Europe," says one government official. "We are fairly relaxed about emigration."

[dulouz]

[JLarter]

Part of the EU benefits are that you can work anywhere within the EU if you are a national of one of the member states. Because it's much easier to travel now, many people take advantage of this. Nearly 400,000 leave each year but the same figure comes in so there are no real problems.
It's not really news to be honest as everyone in Europe has the opportunity to work abroad. Not even sure why it's worth discussing.