Immigrant Law Passes in Germany

Germany’s Parliament approved a landmark immigration reform measure Friday, but opposition conservatives walked out in protest, saying the law’s adoption was unconstitutional.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats won the Bundesrat upper house vote on the measure to allow a limited number of skilled foreigners into Germany, but the conservatives would not accept the way the vote was counted.

The reform, already passed by the lower house, opens Germany to foreign labor for the first time since the early 1970s.

Schroeder told a news conference the conservatives’ assessment that the vote was unconstitutional is “absurd” and said he did not see the dispute over the legislation affecting upcoming elections.

“Now there is a law that does justice to Germany’s humanitarian wishes . . . so that those that we need to maintain and expand our economic prosperity come to us,” he said.

Michael Rogowski, president of the German Industry Assn., welcomed the passing of the law, saying it would help firms alleviate skill gaps in key sectors.

“I hope that the topic will no longer be the subject of an emotionalized election campaign,” he said in a statement.

After Berlin’s Social Democratic mayor, Klaus Wowereit, who holds the rotating Bundesrat presidency, refused to reverse his decision to declare the legislation passed, conservatives walked out.

“I am very worried that the constitution has been so brazenly trampled upon to achieve an alleged political goal,” Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber, Schroeder’s conservative challenger in the Sept. 22 election, told reporters.

Stoiber, whose conservatives lead in opinion polls, has said Germany does not need more migrant labor because unemployment is above 4 million and the country cannot integrate more foreigners.