Germany blocks H-1B

Date: Friday, December 20, 2002 1:26 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

It appears that German workers succeded in blocking their version of H-1B.

The Wall Street Journal

December 18, 2002 6:56 a.m. EST
EUROPEAN BUSINESS NEWS

German Supreme Court Blocks Landmark Immigration Law

Associated Press

BERLIN -- Germany's supreme court Wednesday blocked a landmark immigration
law designed to bring in skilled workers wanted by industry, handing a
victory to conservative opponents of the bill just two weeks before it was
due to come into force.

The country's top judges backed a complaint by six conservative-led states
that the president of the upper house of parliament had been wrong to count
a disputed vote from Brandenburg state as a vote in favor of the law.

Conservatives say they are ready to negotiate with the government to make
changes to the law. But the Greens, part of German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder's coalition, are hostile to demands for tighter restriction on
immigration numbers and over the grounds for granting asylum.

The government says the law will help Germany's ailing economy by meeting a
shortfall of specialists such as computer programmers, while speeding up
processing of asylum applications and pressing newcomers to integrate.

Industry leaders fear that the law, which was to come into force Jan. 1,
could now be delayed indefinitely.

"Germany needs clear rules that make it easier for the highly qualified to
immigrate," Michael Rogowski, the head of the
Federation of German Industry, said in Monday's Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
Anyone who believes that this can be put
off "is mistaken," he said.

The immigration bill appeared headed for defeat in March in the upper house,
where Germany's 16 states are represented,
because Brandenburg's coalition of Mr. Schroeder's Social Democrats and the
conservative Christian Democratic Union
were split over how to vote.

A state usually abstains when its top officials can't agree on a position.
But this time, support for the bill from
Brandenburg's Social Democratic governor Manfred Stolpe was counted by the
president of the house, also a Social
Democrat, as a vote in favor -- sparking a tumult in the chamber.

President Johannes Rau signed the bill into law in June, but said it would
be best for the constitutional court to clear
up the concerns of lawmakers and legal experts about how it was passed.

Conservatives led by Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber made immigration a top
theme in their unsuccessful campaign to
unseat Mr. Schroeder in September elections.

Copyright © 2002 Associated Press

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