Germany’s industries are scrambling to fill gaps left by retiring workers and a dearth of young locals, prompting a surge in recruitment from India. With demographic headwinds battering its economy, the country is forging stronger ties with South Asia’s vast youth reservoir to secure vital trades talent.
It all kicked off in February 2021 for Handirk von Ungern-Sternberg, then at the Freiburg Chamber of Skilled Crafts, when an email from Indian firm Magic Billion offered motivated young trainees.
Representing trades from carpentry to butchery, the chamber was inundated with desperate employers. “We had a lot of desperate employers, who couldn’t find anyone to work for them,” von Ungern-Sternberg recalls. “So we decided to give it a chance.”
Butchery proved a prime example of the crisis. Guild head Joachim Lederer explains that outlets dwindled from 19,000 in 2002 to under 11,000 by 2021, as youth shunned the gruelling work. “The butchery trade is hard work,” he says. “And for the last 25 years or so, young people have been going in other directions.”
Magic Billion sent 13 recruits in autumn 2022 to Swiss-border towns, including 21-year-old Anakha Miriam Shaji, who joined Lederer in Weil am Rhein. “I wanted to see the world,” she says. “I wanted to make my living standard so high. I wanted good social security.”
Von Ungern-Sternberg now leads India Works with Magic Billion’s Aditi Banerjee, growing from those 13 to 200 Indians in butchers, bakers, mechanics and more. They plan 775 arrivals this year. “India is a country with 600 million people below the age of 25,” Banerjee notes. “Only 12 million come into the workforce every year. So there’s a huge labour surplus.”
A 2024 Bertelsmann report warns of a 10 per cent workforce shrink by 2040 without 288,000 annual migrants. Visa boosts to 90,000 for Indians and new Opportunity Cards have swelled their numbers to 136,670 last year.
Recruits like baker Ishu Gariya and engineer-turned-haulier Ajay Kumar Chandapaka cite better pay and prospects. Mayor Diana Stöcker agrees. “We have to look overseas. It’s the only possibility.”