German migrant bill becomes law

Schroeder says the new law is necessary to avert a skills shortage

BERLIN, Germany -- German President Johannes Rau has signed into law the centre-left government's controversial immigration bill.

The issue of immigration -- likely to be No.1 on the agenda at the EU summit in Seville on Friday -- is now set to be a dominant issue at Germany's September elections.

The bill, which scraped through the upper house of parliament in March, is intended to attract highly skilled foreign workers while putting more pressure on newcomers to integrate. The law also tightens rules for asylum seekers.

The government says it will admit immigrants needed by German industry to offset its aging population and avert a skills shortage.

But opposition conservatives complain that it could worsen the country's already high unemployment.

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The conservatives quickly said they would challenge the new law in the country's constitutional court, which could overturn it. They maintain the vote in March was invalid.

Rau, a member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, said on Thursday he had "examined very carefully whether the immigration law conforms with the constitution."

He criticised both the government and opposition for failing to find a compromise in months of talks before the vote.

The new law sets no ceiling on the numbers of immigrants that could be admitted, and conservatives say a wave of newcomers would undermine efforts to cut the country's persistently high unemployment -- the jobless rate is hovering at about 10 percent.

"In this situation, we can't afford rising immigration rates," said Bernhard Vogel, the conservative governor of Thuringia state.

Germany's 7.3 million legal foreign residents currently account for about 9 percent of the population. The new law foresees German language courses for long-term foreign residents, and will tighten rules for asylum seekers.

Stoiber: Germans struggling with "heavy additional burden" of integration

It was drawn up after a government-appointed commission found last year that Germany needs tens of thousands of new migrants each year to supplement its aging, shrinking population.

"My prediction is that, in terms just of numbers, little will change in the immigration figures -- and if it does, they will go down -- but the quality of the people who come to us will change significantly," Interior Minister Otto Schily said.

Schroeder's conservative rival, Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber, said this week that schools and average citizens already are struggling with the "heavy additional burden" of integrating foreigners into society.

He has promised a new bill to effectively "limit and regulate immigration" if he is elected.

However, Schroeder has made reducing unemployment to 3.5 million a priority during his term in office.

In his New Year's message he told Germans that preserving and creating jobs would be his "most urgent priority" for 2002.

He did agree to some concessions, including an amendment to state clearly the aim of limiting immigration and a reduction of the upper age at which foreign children can join their parents in Germany from 14 to 12.