Tell me more about this
Right now, a Künstlersozialkasse application that has been pending for over a year (each reply takes two months or more, by post). Soon the renewal of my freelance visa, which will take anywhere between 3 and 9 months with no possibility of knowing what's going on.
I've been here for a while so my life is rather stable. When you move there with a family though? It's hell for a while.
Partially.
It's doesn't work inside Germany, but it's much easier to get into Germany than the U.S. or other countries.
And they need that, the huge language disadvantage needs to be countered somehow, which they are doing on the invitation front, but not enough inside Germany.
And since these people aren't in the voting base, their issues don't matter at all to the government or the candidates.
It also doesn't help that socialist Taxes aren't exactly popular with high performers, the people Germany and other countries are competing for.
I think you never heard about lobbying. Even if their issues could matter, they don't pay for it to be pushed on the agenda.
> You don’t come here because it’s easy
Well, I can’t name another EU country with 5 (soon to be 3) years from entry to citizenship.
Also, this notorious bureaucracy - how often do you usually encounter it? In the period between applying for a Blue Card to changing a job I did it precisely 0 times. And it took me 2 days to switch jobs and pick up a new Zusatzblatt from Ausländerbehörde afterwards.
I earn a living from documenting German bureaucracy and helping immigrants to settle here, so I have a right to be sour.
It's a lot worse for employees because switching jobs involves a 3-5 month bureaucratic lag during which they don't know what will happen to their family. You might be dealing with a much faster immigration office.
The immigration office is completely failing to process its current workload, and everyone is wondering how they're supposed to handle even more applicants.
It takes 3-6 months to get a work visa in Berlin these days. People get fired before they even start because employers give up on them. You can't get an appointment there so a bunch of people are stuck in the country with an expired residence permit, often for months. More and more people are suing the state for failure to act.
Then people can't find a flat. The housing crisis has dramatically worsened in Berlin and a lot of people are profiteering from the situation. It has gotten absurd in Berlin.
Then parents can't find a Kindergarten for their children.
It's a never-ending bureaucratic nightmare. Nothing ever just works. For immigrants, it's just worse.
And for what? The payoff just isn't there. You don't come for the great food, the great weather or the warm people. You don't come here because it's easy and things just work. You don't come here for the salaries.
There's a labour shortage because the salaries don't match the job requirements or the cost of living, the system does not do its job, and the reality does not match the policies set by the government.