Schroeder Dealt Blow as Court Blocks Immigrant Law

The legislation would have allowed a controlled stream of skilled non-European Union foreigners into Germany for the first time since the 1970s, when it ended a program to attract "guest workers," mainly from Turkey.
Interior Minister Otto Schily said he would revive the bill in January and was prepared to negotiate with the conservatives to try to get it through the upper house, which they control.
Schily said the bill had a broad range of support across society, from churches to unions and employers.
"The judgment was about a formal question of law, but not about the content of the bill," he told a news conference. "The law would have given Germany the most modern immigration legislation in Europe."

The ruling is a setback for Schroeder’s center-left government, which was narrowly re-elected in September but has since seen its support collapse over spiraling unemployment and tax hike plans to plug a gaping budget hole.

The conservatives, who say Germany cannot support more immigrants with unemployment at 10 percent, have said they may be prepared to agree a compromise next year.

But a watered-down deal may expose rifts between Schroeder’s Social Democrats and their junior partners, the Greens, the bill’s chief backers who wanted Germany’s doors opened wider.

SKILLS SHORTAGE

Even with four million currently unemployed, German industry groups say more foreign labor is badly needed to plug skills gaps in key sectors, a trend that will accelerate from 2010 as the population ages due to a low birth rate.

Without immigration, Germany’s population is forecast to contract by a quarter from its current 82 million over the next 50 years. There are currently 7.3 million foreigners in Germany, among them around two million mostly lower-skilled "guest workers" and their families.

The new law would broaden a one-off experimental "Green Card" program launched by Schroeder’s government in 2000, which let in computer specialists from India and other countries. More than 10,000 have taken up the offer.

The head of the German BDA employers federation, Dieter Hundt, urged the parties to reach a compromise deal in the coming year to allow industry to recruit from abroad.

The Constitutional Court said it had decided by a majority of six to two that the then-president of the Bundesrat, Social Democrat Klaus Wowereit, had incorrectly counted the state of Brandenburg’s split vote as one in favor of the bill.

His decision meant the immigration proposals sneaked through the upper house of parliament. The conservatives argued the bill’s passage was unconstitutional because states are required to abstain if they cannot deliver unanimous votes.

"The four votes from Brandenburg were not given as required as a single unit," said court vice president Winfried Hassemer.

The Constitutional Court suit was launched in July by conservative-led regional governments from six of Germany’s 16 federal states.