German immigration law favours highly skilled foreigners

After years of bitter wrangling between the Social Democrat coalition government and the Christian Democrat opposition, a new immigration law was passed in Germany last week.

The law, due to come into effect in 2005, was definitively adopted by the upper house of the German parliament (Bundesrat) on Friday.

It allows for the recruitment of highly skilled workers such as scientists, engineers and IT specialists. The highly-skilled bar was put it in by the conservative Christian Soc...