Germany: New Migration In-Between a Job Market Boom, Skill Shortages and Precarious Mobility

Germany emerged in the 21st century as one of the most important destinations for international labour migration. This mobility came to a significant extent from the enlarged EU. This chapter examines the scale and impact of this mobility, as well as efforts to 're-embed' it into national labour relations. It is shown that a booming labour market was an important pull factor for migrants from the old and new EU, who found employment relatively quickly. However, this mobility was also accompanied by incidents of wage dumping and non-compliance with labour standards, partly in connection with “atypical” employment such as posted work and (bogus) self-employment. Not least with regard to the opening of the labour market in 2011 and 2014, the debate about a (re-)regulation of standards gained importance. Thus, concerns about a “race to the bottom” were an important factor influencing the introduction of a statutory minimum wage and the extension of sector-wide wage floors