>Germany wants these international students here, even though their taxpayers foot the bill.
>“Germany is not a country that's growing,” Malone says. “Its population is not growing. They need people, they need immigrants. They want to be a migration country.”
>Think about it this way: it’s a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countries. If a country collects more talent, they'll have an influx of new ideas, new businesses and a better economy.
I completely get the premise of drawing talent. I don't agree with the concerns over population numbers itself. You see this fear from Japan, Germany, and much of Europe.
Entering into an age that will be dominated by robotics, greater general automation, artificial intelligence, etc., having more people across the board will not be a net benefit. Germany is worrying about this at exactly the wrong time.
Germany has vastly expanded their economy since 1970, while adding zero additional people. They'll be able to do exactly the same thing over the next 40 years by leveraging the incredible productivity gains that are inbound right now. No population growth is necessary or desirable; if Germany holds its population steady, and increases economic output through greater productivity, they'll greatly improve the odds that the median standard of living will increase in line.
The intention in germany is much more to try to keep the population stable (it is currently decreasing). The current development is somewhat frightening regard the german pension insurance system.
True. There is big discussion on how to pay benefits in the future and how to stay competitive in global markets. To me the only way to solve this two problems is to attract smart people from foreign countries.
It doesn't require the same level of commitment from them - giving people money to become citizens would likely result in a lot of new German citizens that live outside Germany and have your money. If you want to require them to stay in Germany, now you have to set up a new area of regulations and enforcement and so on and people will be less interested because you are 'trapping' them. If you give them an education instead, you are de facto requiring them to commit several years to living in Germany, and hopefully building ties to the country that make them want to stay after they get the free education - and you didn't have to set up any kind of new rules to handle them.
Or even just drastically lower visa requirements. But, you have to do what's politically feasible. Students are amongst the most accepted foreigners in German society.
>Germany wants these international students here, even though their taxpayers foot the bill.
>“Germany is not a country that's growing,” Malone says. “Its population is not growing. They need people, they need immigrants. They want to be a migration country.”
>Think about it this way: it’s a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countries. If a country collects more talent, they'll have an influx of new ideas, new businesses and a better economy.