Germany's real motive was something that I questioned in early Sept.
I'd also be inclined to expand it and say that if Europe's most successful economy has a labour shortage and the EU has unemployment in some of its Mediterranean members running at 25%, was the whole freedom of movement supposed to plug this sort of thing?
I'd also question the true level of work ready skills these people have too. Years ago we used to run a programme called 'The Overseas Graduate Recognition Project' which was aimed at trying to get professional sanctioning bodies to recognise academic vocational and professional qualifications gained overseas (it started life with an academic focus). To be honest, it was pretty difficult. The standard of training that these people were turning up with in fields like healthcare, medicene, teaching, and law, fell well below what we recognised. We could get concessions made to South Africans (a moral issue in itself since we were fleecing their health system of personnel) but outside of that, nearly everyone required that they complete conversion courses which were tantamount to retraining. I suspected a little bit of closed shoppiness going on, but the overall opinion was that qualifications and experience claimed, were nearly impossible to verify, it some cases fraudulent, and nearly always fell below a threshold that we would accept for professional competance
- I should also admit to a having had a pang of guilt when Merkel came over all humane and compassionate the other day. There was more than just a bit of me thinking that this is what we should be doing, but then I'm not totally convinced that her motives are all that they seem
I'd also be inclined to expand it and say that if Europe's most successful economy has a labour shortage and the EU has unemployment in some of its Mediterranean members running at 25%, was the whole freedom of movement supposed to plug this sort of thing?
I'd also question the true level of work ready skills these people have too. Years ago we used to run a programme called 'The Overseas Graduate Recognition Project' which was aimed at trying to get professional sanctioning bodies to recognise academic vocational and professional qualifications gained overseas (it started life with an academic focus). To be honest, it was pretty difficult. The standard of training that these people were turning up with in fields like healthcare, medicene, teaching, and law, fell well below what we recognised. We could get concessions made to South Africans (a moral issue in itself since we were fleecing their health system of personnel) but outside of that, nearly everyone required that they complete conversion courses which were tantamount to retraining. I suspected a little bit of closed shoppiness going on, but the overall opinion was that qualifications and experience claimed, were nearly impossible to verify, it some cases fraudulent, and nearly always fell below a threshold that we would accept for professional competance
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