Germany-Kenya migration deal prompts brain drain fears | DW News

Germany and Kenya have signed a migration agreement here in Berlin the deal was overseen by Kenyan President William Ruto and German Chancellor Olaf Schultz it means workers from Kenya will be allowed to fill job vacancies here in Germany such as for bus drivers the agreement also allows Germany to deport Kenyans who do not have the right to stay in the country here's more now from the German Chancellor Olaf schelz the agreement opens up PR for Kenyans because skilled workers or young people can come to Germany for training this can help us compensate for the blatant shortage of skilled workers the initial effects of which we are now feeling and which will be with us for years and decades to [Music] come we have Team coverage on the story tonight I'm joined Now by DW political correspondent Hans Brun who's outside the chancellor here in Berlin where the chancellor and the president have been meeting andw correspondent Felix MinGa joins us from the Kenyan Capital Nairobi H let me start with you tell us more about what Germany gets out of this deal most important for this for Germany is that trained Personnel from Kenya will be more easily will more easily come to Germany and take up positions here Ander the German labor market that is because ger the German population is an aging one and there are much fewer young people from Germany itself entering the labor market so this is a way of finding staff from across the world basically in this case from Kenya to keep the German economy going and then the second part of course is not getting people from Kenya into Germany but getting people from Kenya out of Germany that is this possibility uh facilitating the deportation of Kenyans who are illegally in Germany and Felix what's in this for Kenya how does Kenya benefit uh Kenyan will benefit uh of course obvious uh thing being jobs uh a lot of Kenyan young people 67% of them uh do not have jobs so the first thing uh will be them getting jobs uh in Germany the second thing will be they will be able to have long stay visas to either do their skill study or uh vocational training which will enable them uh be fit for the German Market um thirdly there will be skills development uh with a curriculum sh between Germany and Kya and that will help fill the skills gap andly for the Kenyans who will be coming to Germany they will get uh ease in access to German language and they'll also be certified and that will also uh be done for their families when it comes to the time for them being reunited in h let me pick up on the idea of deportations here part of this agreement allows Germany to repatriate rejected Kenyan Asylum Seekers even though Kenya is not one of the main countries of origin of Asylum Seekers here in Germany so so what's the point yes there's only about 800 Kenyans that are to be to to be deported from Germany but the point is really a political signal that the German government is sending through this to German voters here in Germany there's a very very heated debate can be going on most recently but even for months about irregular migration into the country tens of thousands of people people pushing to get into Germany mainly from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan and the opposition parties have been making a lot of political mileage out of that so Chancellor Cole and his government are trying to uh present such an agreement as a way of controlling migration into the country so that the benefits of migration into the country importing skills into the country can be maintained while still controlling the number of people that are illegally or are not wanted in the country they're setting up such agreements one by one and kind of piece by piece to establish a legal framework that will control migration in a more precise Manner and that is the offering as it were to the German voters that they should not vote for wring parties for instance DW's Hans Brun here in Berlin and Felix MinGa in Nairobi to both of you thank you well some critics fear that this migration deal could contribute to a brain drain or a loss of badly needed skilled workers from Kenya DW's Mario Mueller met with a young doctor in Nairobi to hear about those concerns as a child Harry Oto witnessed doctors save his younger brother's life in their remote Canyon Village that's when he knew he wanted to become a doctor himself but after 7 years of study and racking up more than 21,000 EUR in student dead his dream still seems far beyond his reach reports of unemployed medical Gra graduates are causing him concern in the final stages of his training and he hasn't been paid for months sometimes your mind goes blank cuz now you ask yourself what next um if they can't pay you uh during internship training what guarantees you that somebody can actually pay you uh post internship the statistics suggests there are no guarantees 4,000 doctors in Kenya are currently jobless or underemployed although their service is urgently needed the doctor's union says there's a dire shortage of Specialists and patients have to wait months for surgery according to the health Ministry nine out of 10 health facilities are unable to provide basic outpatient services we should actually create more job opportunities for our young doctors here um within the country um because uh we need doctors more uh remember uh we are very short of the who recommendations for the doctor to Patient ratio we are at 1,00 1 to 177,000 yet the wh recommends that for every 1,000 citizens in every country we should actually have a doctor medical workers attribute much of the problem to mismanagement and also corruption oeno has heard of medical graduates having to pay up to €1,200 to get a job in a hospital and others who had to have sex with recruiters is a condition of being hired the overall situation has prompted many doctors and other medical workers to leave Kenya you know there's a lot of brain drain uh especially in our field I it's not just limited to doctors it's also majorly affects our nurses we still have so many patients in our WS with very few doctors seeing them you see you also as a doctor yes you can stay uh you know for the love of your country and all that but uh are you going to be alive after 30 years or after 40 years I think you you'd have worked yourself to death literally like other doctors in training oo is now also considering going abroad to work one option is Germany which is now offering opportunities to Young well educated Kenyans like him I would like to give back to the community that raised me so that's why I'd rather work here but you see there's circumstances or the conditions are not really healthy or not really palatable to many uh to many of us so I feel like if I get an opportunity uh let's say in Germany of course I would go and Serve the People thereo heard he'd most likely serve the German people as a nurse or caregiver for the elderly because those are the jobs Germany is most desperate to fill a long way off is childhood raining but can imagine doing it for a few years to earn money and extra qualifications after that he wants to return to Kenya and finally start saving lives in villages like the one he grew up in