Wealthy countries wage global battle for skilled immigrants

Shortage of labour as economy hots up sees nations offering residency, fast-track visas

NEW YORK • As the global economy hots up and tries to put the Covid-19 pandemic aside, a battle for the young and able has begun.

With fast-track visas and promises of permanent residency, many wealthy nations driving the recovery are sending a message to skilled immigrants all over the world: Help wanted. Now.

In Germany, where officials recently warned that the country needs 400,000 new immigrants a year to fill jobs in fields ranging from academia to air-conditioning, a new Immigration Act offers accelerated work visas and six months to visit and find a job.

Canada plans to give residency to 1.2 million new immigrants by 2023. Israel has finalised a deal to bring healthcare workers from Nepal. In Australia, where mines, hospitals and pubs are all shorthanded after nearly two years with a closed border, the government intends to double the number of immigrants it allows into the country over the next year.

The global drive to attract foreigners with skills, especially those that fall somewhere between physical labour and a physics PhD, aims to smooth out a bumpy emergence from the pandemic.

Covid-19 disruptions have pushed many people to retire, resign or just not return to work. But its effects run deeper. By keeping so many people in place, the pandemic has made humanity’s demographic imbalance more obvious – rapidly ageing rich nations produce too few new workers, while countries with a surplus of young people often lack work for all.

New approaches to that mismatch could influence the worldwide debate over immigration. European governments remain divided on how to handle new waves of asylum seekers.

In the United States, immigration policy remains mostly stuck in place, with a focus on the Mexican border, where migrant detentions have reached a record high.