Four months after its launch, just 2.360 people have applied for the Chancenkarte visa that Germany hopes will bring non-EU citizens to fill the country’s record-high worker shortage.

590 Chancenkarte applications made monthly since June

According to figures from the Federal Interior Ministry, first reported by Bild, just 590 people have applied for Germany’s new Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card) work visa each month since it was launched in June 2024.

The Chancenkarte permits non-EU citizens to move to Germany for one year and carry out part-time work while they look for long-term employment or vocational training. Previously, most non-EU citizens had to have a concrete, full-time job offer in Germany before they could move.

Before the government launched the visa, it was hoped that around 30.000 people would apply for the Chancenkarte each year. With a rapidly ageing population putting pressure on the pension system, Germany desperately needs migrant workers to balance its economy.

“Even if we leverage all domestic potential, this will not be possible without further immigration, also for demographic reasons. We need both labourers and skilled workers,” Federal Employment Agency Director Andrea Nahles said in 2023.

So far, Indian nationals have been the largest group to submit Chancenkarte applications, followed by people from China, Turkey, Russia and Tunisia. Of the total 2.360 applications submitted since June, 15 percent have been rejected.

Why has the Chancenkarte not sufficiently charmed prospective migrant workers?

While a forgiving assessment would point out that Germany’s Chancenkarte is still relatively new and applications may pick up steam in the coming months and years, critics did forewarn a flop.

Shortly after the scheme launched, researchers at the German Institute for Job Markets and Career Research (IAB) and TU Dresden deemed the points-based visa scheme too complicated and limited to be effective.

Speaking to Rheinische Post, IAB expert Herbert Brücker predicted the outcome of the Chancenkarte to be “negligible” because applicants have to jump through so many hoops to get a card in the first place, and that’s before they can even start looking for work. 

To be eligible, Chancenkarte applicants must prove their financial stability; that they can be financially independent while working only 20 hours per week in Germany for the year their visa is valid. Critics have also pointed out how this requirement further limits the pool of people who can afford to take advantage of the new visa.

The visa makes it easier for "skilled workers" to have their qualifications recognised in Germany, but the chair of TU Dresden’s Expert Council on Migration and Integration Hans Vorländer, thinks this limitation is naive to the extent of Germany’s worker shortage. “We don't just need skilled workers right now, we need labour in general,” Vorländer told Rheinische Post.

The German government needs “more courage to simplify” the system said Vorländer, “Current German immigration policy is so complicated that only very few understand it.”

Other factors may be adding to Germany’s unappeal, including the worst housing shortage the country has seen in 20 years, the effects of which the coalition government has done little to mitigate and which are only forecast to worsen.

The anti-immigration politics of the governing SPD and the CDU, the party predicted to form Germany’s next government, alongside the sharp rise of the far-right AfD in those eastern federal states worst affected by the economic slump, have also done little to polish Germany into a land with gold-paved streets in the minds on international skilled workers.

Thumb image credit: 24K-Production / Shutterstock.com