Blue card for EU to cope with skills shortage

BBC News: EU pins skills hopes on 'blue card'


Good or bad for Europe? Some sort of standardisation I guess.

An interesting thing is that Germany has simultaneously a relatively high unemployment rate (among young people as well) and a shortage of workers with certain skills.

Difficult problem to solve, but maybe there should be more state sponsored initiatives to acquire these skills (i.e. computer science training).

I would think they would try to get young people to uni before looking for skilled labor outside of their own country. But then again, an unmotivated worker/student is always worse than somebody who's trying his best to excel at his job so he does not lose it.

German Politicians Reject EU Fast-Track Migration Scheme (Spiegel Online)

There needs to be the prospect of the right to settle long term in Germany and bring family members with you or Germany will NOT attract the skilled people it needs.
We saw that the last time they tried a national scheme.

So... I read the article but don't get what the problem is for the opposition. Of course there are a lot of unemployed people, but most of them are not qualified for specialist work. Qualifying them might require overhauling something else such as the education/adult education system. OTOH letting in a bunch of specialists wouldn't exactly be opening the floodgates for riffraff and spongers. You'd get a lot more creative thinkers and entrepreneurs, and how can that be detrimental...

Blue card also got some negative points.T
This will bring here people who are ready to work for overtime and lower wages.
This is what happen now in US with the Green card.Once no one worked on weekend but now in most IT firms you find people working late nights and weekends.Employers are always happy to recruit these kind of people who always say "YES SIR"

When did IT people in the US ever not work on weekends at all (this also depends on what your specific position is and where you are working)? Sorry, but working weekends or late to finish projects or do scheduled maintenance is par for the course in IT, including sometimes being "on-call".

Maybe it was caused by Globalization? Just closing your eyes and wishing your Global competitors will give their workers 6 weeks vacation, all holidays and weekends off will not make it so.

Why do you think Siemens, Nokia, BMW are moving some business units out of Germany?

I agree with what Conquestador said
"working weekends or late to finish projects or do scheduled maintenance is par for the course in IT, including sometimes being "on-call".

But this should not be made a regular practice.
Let me give you my own experience,I worked with a team consisting of 6 members and everything went well later they introduced 12 more people who came from xxxx Country.Most of them had nothing to do on weekends and come to office to chat and surf internet in the name of work.
This became a regular practice and management decided to give 50€ plus for those who work on weekend and then all 12 members started to work on weekend.We were also asked to work which we refused.Later things got escalated and client started putting pressure saying the project needs to be finished fast for which everyone should work on weekend.
Finally we completed the project as scheduled before which could be possible without working on weekend.

I think the problem in Germany is trying to get them OUT of Uni!

Its really stupid management, may be they might have gone bankrupt. Paying 50 Euro plus for simply sitting over the weekend is stupidity.

You should have been a responsible employee and complained of the said activity or may be talked with those xxxx Country people coming to chat, that these are the problems if you come over the weekend.

Every situation is different, even if there are some similarities. Some people like to work on weekends, others are indifferent, and yet others hate it with a passion. There is enough room for all types.