Germany rejected 27,000 foreigners' job offers last year: report

Americans and other non-EU citizens who already have job offers in Germany must also have their positions approved by the government. But 27,000 were not so lucky last year, according to a new report.
The Federal Employment Agency (BA) denied approval for the job offers of around 27,000 foreigners last year because their work could arguably be performed by a German, or because the job paid too little, according to the Rheinische Post on Friday.

That figure was more than double the number from two years before.

The newspaper cited a government response to a parliamentary question from the Green party.

Over the past two years, the number of applications for job offer approvals from refugees and other non-EU citizens has risen greatly, according to the BA.

The number of requests that were approved roughly tripled, from about 68,000 in 2014 to 215,000 in 2016.

During this time, Germany has seen a record number of immigrants enter the country, including more than a million asylum seekers. Between 2014 and 2015, 2.14 million immigrants from around the world arrived in total, about 57 percent of whom came from another European country.

After receiving a job offer in Germany, foreigners who need a residence permit to stay in the country must also have that offer approved by the Employment Agency. The BA examines whether the job could also be performed by a German or another EU citizen – a process referred to as a “priority test”.

For refugees, the BA reviews whether the job offers them less favorable conditions than comparable German workers.

Last August, the requirement that Germans be given priority for jobs was mostly suspended for refugees for three years to give them better chances for finding jobs. Since then just 6 percent of refugee job offers are now rejected, compared to 40 percent previously.

Green party politician Volker Beck said there is still room for improvement.

“The bureaucratic priority test should be abolished as much as possible,” Beck said.