"Hard to Find Semiconductor Workforce"... Germany Even Revises Immigration Law

Strengthening Efforts to Attract Migrant Workers Including IT Technicians
Fostering Talent Through Collaboration with Academia

The German government, aiming to build Europe's largest semiconductor production base, is facing a labor shortage and has even revised immigration laws to attract global talent. By pouring massive subsidies into global semiconductor companies such as Intel to attract investment, and through proactive immigration policies and industry-academia-research collaboration, Germany plans to secure a large number of overseas IT specialist students to staff semiconductor factories.

According to Bloomberg and other sources on the 2nd (local time), the German federal and state governments are accelerating reforms to immigration laws to secure skilled foreign workers. This effort is interpreted as a bill primarily aimed at attracting a large number of IT professionals from non-European Union (EU) regions, mainly India.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (second from left), and Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany (fourth from left), among others, are taking a commemorative photo at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Infineon Smart Power Fab held in Dresden, Germany, last May. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Earlier, on the 23rd of last month, the German parliament passed the 'Migrant Worker Attraction Act.' Until now, in Germany, non-EU nationals could only obtain work visas if their German employers could prove employment. Under this law, non-EU nationals can now live in Germany for up to one year while seeking employment.

Germany's move to reform immigration laws stems from the difficulty of finding skilled workers domestically amid declining birth rates and an aging population, which are reducing the overall labor force. It was found that from June 2021 to June last year alone, 62,000 workers were lacking in industrial fields across Germany. In particular, 28% of Germany's electronic engineering experts and 33% of engineering supervisors in the semiconductor sector are expected to reach retirement age within the next 10 to 12 years, raising concerns that the labor shortage will worsen.

The most active efforts to secure manpower within Germany are underway in the southeastern state of Sachsen. About one-third of the semiconductors produced in the EU come from Sachsen, where a large-scale complex has been established. This is because Germany's leading semiconductor companies Infineon, GlobalFoundries, and the engineering group Bosch have factories here. Currently, the workforce engaged in the semiconductor industry in Sachsen is about 76,000, but it is projected that the required workforce will increase to 100,000 by 2030.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

In Dresden, the capital of Sachsen, the industry collaborates with major universities such as Technische Universit?t Dresden and research institutions like the Helmholtz Center and Fraunhofer Institute to focus on workforce development. Bosch explained that through this collaboration, "we can secure both experienced semiconductor experts and university graduates for semiconductor factories." An industrial association composed of about 300 companies related to semiconductor and electronic engineering in Sachsen also functions as an infrastructure for talent development.

Infineon already employs staff from more than 50 countries and regions in Sachsen alone. GlobalFoundries also has employees of over 40 nationalities working in Dresden. The proportion of foreigners in Dresden has more than doubled since 2014. More than half of the students participating in semiconductor manufacturing-related education programs operated by Technische Universit?t Dresden are Indian nationals, with many also from China and Iran.

Despite these efforts, Bloomberg pointed out that challenges remain for Germany to solve. Silvana Musella, the technical coordinator of the EU semiconductor industry development project 'AllProS,' stated that German semiconductor companies are struggling to match the salaries of overseas talent. She said, "Europe is losing talent because it is difficult to match the salaries that Singapore, South Korea, the United States, and Canada can offer."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.