https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/fire-hire-germany-seizes-silicon-160346285.html Rene Wagner and Jan Schwartz Mon, January 30, 2023 at 6:03 PM GMT+2 By Rene Wagner and Jan Schwartz BERLIN (Reuters) - Faced with a tight labour market and a shortage of workers with key software engineering skills, some German companies are looking at thousands of layoffs in Silicon Valley as an opportunity to recruit top talent. The U.S. West Coast has always been the main destination for ambitious software engineers looking to work in the best-paid, most elite corner of their profession, but the mass redundancies have created a pool of jobseekers that Germany is eager to tap. "They fire, we hire," said Rainer Zugehoer, Chief People Officer at Cariad, the software subsidiary of automaker Volkswagen. "We have several hundred open positions in the U.S., in Europe and in China." Spooked by inflation and the prospect of recession, Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta have announced a combined almost 40,000 job cuts. While Germany is also teetering on the edge of recession, its companies have grown more slowly in recent years and, in a country notorious for still handling business by fax, there are huge technology leaps to be made. Germany, with one of the world's oldest populations, has gaping holes in its labour force: according to IT industry group Bitkom, 137,000 IT jobs are unfilled. The government is simplifying immigration rules and dangling the prospect of easily-acquired citizenship to tempt skilled would-be immigrants, and regional authorities are pressing ahead. "I would like to cordially invite you to move to Bavaria," wrote Judith Gerlach, digitalisation minister in Germany's wealthiest region on LinkedIn in a post addressed to the recently laid off.
"Easier" doesn't actually mean easy. They've done some reforms lately, but unless I've missed something (which is possible), becoming a German citizen is still a difficult and time-consuming process. It's much easier to gain citizenship in several other EU countries. Germany is probably easier than the US, though, I'll grant them that much.
Many lay-offed employees in silicon valley and tech companies are on work visas such as H1B and have months to find another sponsor or leave the US before the visa expires. They may show interest in working in Germany.
Since Germany has the second highest taxes in the world (after Belgium) I don´t recommend moving to Germany in case you are ambitious, skilled and want to built up something by working hard. On top of the regular tax comes the inflation tax which devalues your money on the bank (and also devalues the state debt, that´s why I call it inflation tax) However if you don´t feel like working Germany is probably one of the best countries in the world, for locals as well as for foreigners. "Bürgergeld" means as an unemployed the state will pay your flat, health insurance and 480 Euros in cash per month. If you are not motivated to find a job you will hardly be sanctioned by the social welfare office. Just come to Germany, apply for asylum, even you are not granted asylum you will never be deported. In 2022 13000 people have been deported to their home countried and around 2 million new asylum seekers (most of them from the Ukraine, also Syria, Iraq...) have been warmly welcomed. Source: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/mehr-abschiebungen-aber-wie-innenministerin-faeser-berat-mit-eu-amtskollegen-9242637.html Working for a German company outside of Germany is of course a different thing and might be a valid option.
