According to calculations by the Federal Institute for Population Research, more and more people in Germany are retiring early. Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to avoid this in the future.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants fewer people to retire before they reach the statutory retirement age. “It is important to increase the proportion of those who can really work until retirement age. That’s difficult for many today,” said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group and the French newspaper “Ouest-France”. Scholz also sees “potential for increasing” the proportion of women in the labor market. “But for that to work, we have to expand all-day offers in crèches, day-care centers and schools.”
According to the Federal Institute for Population Research, many people leave the labor market at the age of 63 or 64 – well before the standard retirement age. At the same time, the German economy is suffering from a labor shortage.
“We can absorb some things by creating better starting opportunities for young people and investing in vocational training and further education,” said Scholz. “And we will also need immigration from other countries in order to be able to secure our prosperity.” Scholz also defended the federal government’s plan to facilitate naturalization in Germany.
“For a long time, those who immigrated to Germany were treated as if they would leave the country later – obtaining citizenship was not the priority,” he said. “But we have long been an immigration country and now want to bring it into line with international standards.” In many countries, citizenship is granted after five years. That should also be the case in this country, “if you can speak German, earn your own living and have not committed any crimes,” said Scholz.
The traffic light had recently started to reform German migration policy with several legislative projects, for example with the so-called opportunity residence law and changes to nationality law.
