Immigration offices must become more welcoming: German Minister

An unwelcoming and occasionally hostile attitude from officials at German immigration offices is making it difficult for the country to attract much-needed skilled workers from abroad, German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said on Tuesday, reported dpa.

"My biggest concern, if I may say so openly, is that the immigration offices and visa offices are not in tune with the system," Habeck said on Tuesday at a conference of the mechanical engineering association VDMA in Berlin.

In recent years, Habeck said, the attitude among immigration offices has been "actually, we don't want these people."

"Now we have to say clearly: now they are wanted," Habeck emphasized. "Yes, and please approve this."

Habeck said Germany needs to take advantage of every opportunity to recruit highly skilled workers, given labour shortages in the country.

He said that anyone raising ideological objections to immigration should be considered anti-business.

He welcomed immigrants who want to work to earn a living in Germany.

"We can use them all," Habeck said.