Germany has become increasingly effective at defining what international professionals need to enter its labour market. Qualifications must be recognised. Employment contracts must meet the relevant requirements. Depending on the occupation and route, language proficiency may be expected or required.
But there is a less visible part of the process that receives considerably less attention: what happens after the person arrives.
A recognised qualification, a job offer and a German-language certificate do not automatically prepare someone for the unwritten rules of a German workplace, the realities of living in a small German town or the emotional experience of rebuilding a life thousands of kilometres from home.
That distinction matters because Germany does not simply need international workers to arrive. It needs them to succeed, remain and build lives in the communities where they work.
The problem is increasingly one of retention as much as recruitment.
The Institute for Employment Research, or IAB, estimates that Germany needs net immigration of around 400,000 people a year to stabilise its labour-force potential. Yet its International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany found that 26% of immigrants surveyed had considered leaving Germany during the previous 12 months. In a subsequent follow-up, the IAB found that 2.6% had actually left Germany by the time of the second survey. Among those who left, 32% cited burdensome bureaucracy as a reason. (FDZ – Forschungsdatenzentrum)
These figures do not mean that Germany is failing to integrate migrants. Nor do they suggest that every person who considers leaving is dissatisfied with the country. Migration decisions are shaped by family circumstances, career opportunities, bureaucracy and personal preferences.
But they do point to a structural question that Germany cannot afford to ignore: what happens between recruitment and retention?
The gap between being qualified and being ready
Through my work connecting African talent with opportunities in Germany, I have repeatedly heard concerns from recruitment companies about the gap between formal eligibility and practical readiness.
I want to be precise about this. These observations are based partly on feedback from recruitment partners and employers with whom I engage. They are not evidence that every German employer has the same experience, nor that international recruits from Africa are uniquely affected.
The issue is broader.
A professional can be highly qualified and still be unfamiliar with expectations around punctuality, documentation, communication, personal initiative, hierarchy, teamwork or receiving critical feedback.
Someone can pass a B2 German examination and still struggle when instructions are delivered quickly, when a customer speaks colloquially or when colleagues switch into informal conversation during a meeting.
Then there is everything outside the workplace.
Finding accommodation. Registering an address. Opening a bank account. Understanding health insurance. Navigating taxes and public administration. Learning how public transport works. Finding childcare. Building friendships. Understanding local customs.
None of these appears on a CV. All of them can affect whether someone feels able to establish a stable life.
The challenge is not simply whether an international employee can perform a job. It is whether the wider system allows that employee to become established.
Integration cannot be a one-way test
There is an important danger in conversations about cultural readiness.
If poorly framed, they can quickly become arguments about whether migrants are sufficiently willing to adapt to German society. That would miss half the problem.
Integration is not cultural erasure. Nor should international professionals be expected to abandon their identities before they arrive.
But adaptation is real. Anyone moving to another country has to learn how its institutions, workplaces and social conventions operate.
The responsibility, however, runs in both directions.
Germany’s own official skilled-worker guidance recognises this. The federal government’s Make it in Germany platform advises employers to establish welcoming cultures, prepare colleagues and managers, provide structured onboarding and, where appropriate, mentoring and diversity training. It also recommends practical assistance with accommodation, authorities, insurance, banking, taxes and other aspects of everyday life. (Make it in Germany)
That is significant because it challenges the idea that integration is simply something the newcomer must achieve.
A worker can learn how a new workplace operates. But no employee, German or foreign, can single-handedly create an inclusive workplace.
Germany’s political debate makes this more urgent
The issue is unfolding against a much more difficult political backdrop.
On 6 September, the Alternative für Deutschland won 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election, its strongest result in a German state election. The CDU received 17.2%. The AfD won 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, leaving it short of an outright majority. (tagesschau.de)
Migration is only one part of the political debate surrounding the result. Economic insecurity, distrust of established parties and wider concerns about the direction of Germany are also part of the discussion.
That distinction matters.
Those of us who support international labour mobility should not respond to every concern about migration by dismissing it as prejudice. Communities can have legitimate questions about housing, public services, workplace cohesion and the pace of social change.
But those concerns should not become a licence to treat migrants as a single social problem, either.
The lesson for policymakers and employers is not that international recruitment has failed. Nor is it that migration will solve every labour-market problem.
It is that the credibility of international recruitment depends partly on what happens after arrival.
If people are recruited into Germany, struggle with accommodation and bureaucracy, encounter workplace isolation and eventually leave, the country has incurred the cost of recruitment without securing the long-term benefit.
Recruitment needs to become a longer process
This is why preparation should begin before departure and continue well beyond the first day at work.
I would propose a Germany-Africa readiness and retention framework built around four principles.
First, selection should go beyond the CV.
Qualifications and language proficiency remain essential. But recruiters should also assess motivation, expectations, adaptability and understanding of the opportunity.
Candidates should receive realistic information about salaries, taxation, accommodation, working hours, workplace expectations, weather and the cost of establishing themselves in Germany.
Recruitment should not sell Germany as a dream.
It should prepare people for Germany as it is.
Second, cultural and practical preparation should begin before arrival.
German-language education should be accompanied by practical preparation for professional and everyday life.
That should include workplace communication, documentation, punctuality, feedback, employee rights, conflict resolution, personal boundaries, gender equality, public administration, insurance, taxation and housing.
It should also address the less tangible aspects of migration: culture shock, homesickness, isolation and the experience of being visibly different in a new environment.
This is not about producing people who behave like Germans before they board a plane. It is about ensuring that people understand the environment they are entering.
Third, employers need to prepare as seriously as employees.
The first months of an international placement should not be treated as an administrative afterthought.
Employers can provide structured onboarding, workplace mentors, clear explanations of expectations and support with essential administrative processes.
Germany’s official guidance already recommends welcome programmes, mentoring and practical support for international employees. (Make it in Germany)
The principle is straightforward: if a company has invested in recruiting internationally, it should also invest in giving that person a realistic opportunity to succeed.
Fourth, Germany should make greater use of its diaspora networks.
African professionals already living in Germany possess a form of knowledge that neither a visa office nor a recruitment agency can easily replicate.
They know what candidates may expect when they arrive. They also know the realities they are likely to encounter.
A mentor who has already made the journey can explain an unfamiliar workplace, help a newcomer navigate the first months and provide context when misunderstandings arise.
Diaspora organisations should not be expected to compensate for poor employer practices or inadequate public services. Their role should complement those institutions, not replace them.
But they can provide something equally important: social connection.
The economics of retention
There is also a straightforward economic argument.
Germany is competing internationally for skilled workers. If professionals who have already overcome the barriers of language learning, qualification recognition, recruitment and immigration subsequently leave because the transition into German life has failed, Germany loses more than an employee.
It loses part of the investment made in bringing that person into the labour market.
The IAB’s research makes the retention question particularly relevant. Its first International Mobility Panel found that only 57% of immigrants surveyed said they planned to remain permanently in Germany, while 30% were uncertain about their long-term plans. (IAB Research)
These figures should not be interpreted as a prediction of mass departure. They are evidence that permanence cannot simply be assumed.
And retention is not solely about making migrants feel welcome.
It is also about making Germany workable.
If administrative procedures are unnecessarily difficult, if housing is inaccessible, if professional progression is limited or if discrimination becomes a persistent part of someone’s experience, language proficiency alone will not solve the problem.
The IAB’s 2024 research on the Skilled Immigration Act similarly identified bureaucratic hurdles and experiences of discrimination alongside generally successful labour-market integration among migrants using the new rules. (IAB Research)
A better bargain for both sides
The answer is not to slow international recruitment at a time when Germany needs skilled workers.
It is to make recruitment more responsible.
Candidates should arrive understanding that adaptation is part of the process. Employers should understand that adaptation cannot be demanded without support. Recruitment companies should remain engaged after the contract is signed. Governments should make immigration and administrative processes as transparent and workable as possible.
And diaspora communities should be treated as potential partners in this process rather than simply as evidence that migration has already occurred.
There is a larger opportunity here for Germany and Africa.
Well-managed labour mobility can give German companies access to skills they need while giving African professionals opportunities for career development. It can create durable professional networks between the two regions and, over time, strengthen commercial, educational and institutional links.
But that outcome is not guaranteed by a visa.
A qualification can open the door. A language certificate can make communication possible. An employment contract can establish the legal relationship.
None of them, by itself, creates belonging.
The real test of Germany’s international recruitment strategy should therefore be measured not only by how many people enter the country, but by how many successfully complete training, pass probation, remain with their employers, progress professionally and establish stable lives in their communities.
Germany has become increasingly capable of bringing international talent through the door.
The next challenge is making sure there is a functioning human infrastructure on the other side of it.
Writren by Kumbirai Chipadza who is a Zimbabwean-German entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Deutsch Connect, an organisation focused on labour mobility between Africa and Germany. Its work includes German-language preparation, candidate pre-selection, employer engagement, cultural readiness, relocation support and post-arrival integration. Chipadza moved to Germany in 2016 and later became a German citizen. His work brings together personal experience with engagement across recruitment, employment and diaspora networks.
