„We must avoid immigrating skilled workers becoming guest workers all over again“, says Elio Adler, the chairman of the WerteInitiative – jüdisch-deutsche Positionen e.V.. „We now have the chance to define the conditions under which immigration to us works. We should use it to offer a genuine offer of integration. A culture of welcome that has drawn the lessons from past experience.“
A skilled workers immigration act offers positive opportunities for society here and for immigrants too. Alongside the obvious labour-market-related issues, a further area is of importance: from the point of view of the immigrants it is important to know in advance what kind of coexistence awaits them in Germany. The clear commitment to the free democratic basic order (FDGO) should not be implicitly presumed here; rather, its content should be communicated explicitly from the outset and its observance required. What matters is conveying the formative values of our Grundgesetz, in particular the principles of freedom of expression as well as its limits, of the equality of men and women including equal participation in education and in social life in Germany that is not shaped by religious prescriptions. That LGBTQ people, Christians, Jews, Muslims and other minorities can live in this country free of discrimination and attacks. Our essential customs and practices in everyday dealings with one another must also be made known from the outset. Alongside sufficient language skills and compulsory integration courses, the granting of immigration should depend on passing an examination in the learning content mentioned.
From first contact to entry, from the integration course to the experience of togetherness in public: the more consistently the FDGO is recognisable as a system of values, the better integration will work. That of course also includes the duty of the mainstream society here to behave as openly and as welcomingly towards immigrants as we also expect from immigrants. In this way these skilled workers will precisely not become „guest workers“, but fully integrated new citizens of Germany, and will have a positive share not only in the world of work but also in social togetherness.
