‘When everyone’s a winner’

Threefold benefits

With the Triple Win Pilot Project, the Federal Employment Agency’s International Placement Services (ZAV) and GIZ have jointly developed new, sustainable and effective approaches to recruiting foreign skilled workers for the German labour market in response to German demographic trends.

Under the pilot scheme, applicants from countries outside the EU are recruited to fill vacancies in German companies. This form of labour migration complements domestic labour market measures such as improving training, raising the retirement age, and increasing the percentage of women in employment.

The main purpose of the pilot project is to reconcile the divergent interests of the German labour market, the home countries and the workers themselves so that everyone benefits. For the skilled workers, labour migration is an opportunity for personal and professional development. Many of them take their new-found skills back home later, thus benefiting their country of origin. In home countries with high unemployment, the scheme helps to ease the pressure in the labour markets and boosts the economy, as labour migrants generally send money back home to support their families. And German employers gain access to well-qualified staff.

Transparent recruitment, selection and migration procedures which comply with the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel support the attainment of this triple win scenario and allow other gains to be made as well. The procedures, which are agreed with the relevant authorities and agencies in the home countries, are intended to prevent corruption in the recruitment process, irregular migration, human trafficking, wage dumping and excessive out-migration of skilled workers. The pilot scheme is therefore intended to test the parameters for responsible, long-term mobility of skilled workers in professions other than nursing as well.

Author: Gabriele Rzepka. She is a freelance journalist, specialising in development policy and technology.
The article was first published in the GIZ magazine akzente, issue 04/2012.