English should become a second official language at administrative offices in Germany, one of the country’s governing parties has argued, saying unwieldy bureaucratic German is proving too much of a deterrent for much-needed skilled workers from abroad. According to The Guardian, Germany’s three-party government of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in which the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) is a junior coalition partner, last autumn unveiled its own version of a green card, called Chancenkarte or ‘opportunity card’, designed to address a critical shortage of skilled labour. Johannes Vogel, of the FDP, told the Guardian, “Skilled workers who want to come to Germany should be able to successfully apply for our new points-based ‘green card’ scheme from abroad even if they don’t yet speak fluent German.”

Vogel, a member of the Bundestag’s committee for labour and social affairs, said the new green card system needed to be designed in such a way as to make it possible for applicants to qualify even if they were not fluent in German. “And the offices where they have to register once these workers are here should be able to offer them English application forms and caseworkers who are fluent in English,” Vogel added. Germany recorded an annual average of 844,000 job vacancies in 2022, a record, with desperate shortages especially in the pharmaceutical, engineering and IT sectors. In January this year, the Federal Employment Agency recorded 764,326 vacancies at German businesses.