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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6837465

Even though right-wing politicians decry immigration (because it's a populist viewpoint), they secretly or openly want more. Countries without low immigration will lag economically compared to countries with high immigration such as the US.

Original link: https://www.ft.com/content/de913edd-71d1-4a36-b897-091125596952

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[-] Nobsi@feddit.de 77 points 1 year ago

"we need more people that we dont respect to do the jobs that we dont want to. At the same time we have to make it really hard for immigrants to live here"

[-] taladar@feddit.de 59 points 1 year ago

Also, we are going to complain that asylum seekers don't work while explicitly prohibiting work for asylum seekers.

[-] agrammatic@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's one of the most blatant self-made problems around migration that populists very disingenuously employ to paint their favourite picture of the "welfare queen" which has been a bold, racist lie since it was first used.

But I'm also a bit sceptical of how you can do this in a country without mandatory collective agreements in all sectors. Germany at least has a minimum wage, but that just means wage dumping can only go as low as 12 Euro per hour. Back in Cyprus, where the same question is constantly in the news, the most notorious anti-worker industry, the tourism sector, is begging for asylum seekers to be allowed in the jobs that they have most trouble filling with citizens, EU-residents, and work-permit holders. But they want to do so outside a collective agreement (one used to exist, but for various reasons is now dead-letter) and essentially without even the protection of a minimum wage (which Cyprus didn't have until this year, and now it has an idiotic version of it which defines a monthly minimum wage without a limit to hours worked).

I think that the introduction of asylum seekers in the workforce should happen, but it should happen in tandem with a massive pro-union legislation change that will make collective agreements mandatory across the board (similar to the Swedish and Finnish models, as far as I understand those). That might require re-aligning the way unionism is understood in Germany from per-workplace to be per-industry.

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Can't speak for Finland, although I think it's the same, but collective agreements are certainly not mandatory in Sweden. Most companies over a certain size have them, but they don't have to. Many, if not most, small businesses don't.

I personally wouldn't work for a company that didn't have one.

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[-] loutr@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Don't know about Germany, but here in France there are lots of IT workers from the Maghreb.

[-] Nobsi@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

And you need lots of IT? Youre not missing anything else?

[-] loutr@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah we need (needed?) IT workers because until a few years ago, salaries for tech positions were really low in France compared to the rest of Europe and the US, so lots of French developers and techs emigrated to these countries.

Not sure about other industries, I work in IT so that's what I know from personal experience.

[-] noobdoomguy8658@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

I worked with someone who moved to Germany/Austria/Switzerland (I can't remember) from France to do IT work and pay a bit less taxes from this IT salary.

I do believe French when they say they need IT workers.

[-] k110111@feddit.de 31 points 1 year ago

As someone who is a highly skilled immigrant, I have been looking for a job for 3 months, my friends (all of them) have been looking for jobs for the last 6 months. Germany needs to fix this issue first before asking for more immigrants. More people won't fix anything if finding a job is so difficult.

[-] ErwinLottemann@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago

aren't you supposed to take all of our jobs?! /s

i hope you succeed soon. a friend of mine is also looking for a new job for nearly a year now 😐

[-] lichtmetzger@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

highly skilled immigrant

That means you want to be paid well, right? We don't do that here.

[-] k110111@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Right now i just want a livable job, like i got 1k eur as a student for working 20h/week so right now anything above or equal should do. My only requirement is that it is related to software cuz thats my field.

Man it is so crazy, i have masters from a uni which is 5th for computer science in germany. My gpa is 1.7 and i have 1.5 years of full time software dev experience and 3 years of part time (20h/week) software/ML engineering experience. And i have sent 70-80 applications and yet no interview. Like people if my creds are not enough to get me even 1 interview where i can show that i have skills that i claim to have then what will??

[-] PugJesus@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago

"Immigrants bad!"

economy needs more workers

"Immigrants good!"

jk, this won't change opinions a bit.

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I mean it's not like the Right Wing politicians are the ones touting the work load immigration assists in carrying

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

I think a better solution would be to fund pensions out of a sovereign wealth fund that's not necessarily tied to youth productivity.

Stops youngins from feeling like they're living in a geroncleptocracy, while also not tossing grandma out to live in the underpass

[-] frostbiker@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What if we created one pension fund each year? Every person born that year contributes into that fund during their working years and withdraw from it in retirement. It seems like a solution that is fair to everybody, avoiding inter-generational wealth transfers.

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Well then it's basically losing money against inflation

[-] frostbiker@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Why would you assume that the fund would be kept in cash? That's not how pension funds work.

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[-] KmlSlmk64@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I don't think that funds are kept in money. IIRC They are mostly kept in other means, so that they are at least somewhat sustainable against inflation. But that doesn't mean that the above idea is good, or doesn't have other flaws.

[-] Spzi@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

But that doesn’t mean that the above idea is good, or doesn’t have other flaws.

If you have more thoughts on this, could you spell them out?

[-] KmlSlmk64@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, you generally don't want to tie up a lot of money, each year by year, meaning that you would have a lot of frozen capital. And capitalism (which also has some flaws, but right now we are using this system) depends on the flow of money/capital. Also managing these funds would make a lot of work / administration, because someone would have to manage what goes in and out and also in what form the funds to store in. And at the point of storing money from younger people, that is not being spent, whilst using money from older people, why not just have less money stored and use the money from the younger generation for the older ones. And you go full circle to the idea that we wanted to solve. Each system has its benefits and flaws, some of which are greater, which outweigh other, smaller ones. Sometimes the solution can be something completely different.

[-] Nacktmull@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

ThEy'Re sTEaLinG ouR JoBs!!!

[-] dingleberry@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago

"Exploit the immigrants to fix their economy, just like Canada"

FTFY

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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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