German agency warns against cutting Balkan migrant worker permits

German employment authorities have warned the government against halving the limit on workers from non-EU states in the Western Balkan region, such as Serbia or Kosovo, saying this can deepen the country's acute shortage of skilled labour.

Well over half a million people from this region are now employed in Germany in jobs subject to social security contributions, the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg said in a statement on Friday.

The current annual quota of 50,000 people from the region who can come to work in Germany - the so-called Western Balkans Regulation - must not be downsized, according to agency board member Vanessa Ahuja.

Currently, 53% of arrivals from the region work in Germany at least as a skilled worker or hold higher qualifications. Around half of them work in bottleneck occupations for which there is not enough available labour.

"A halved quota will weaken a successful immigration model, worsen the skilled labour shortage, and make it more difficult for companies to search for new workers," said Ahuja.

She said if the government's special investment programmes and its "turbo" construction plan is to work, "companies must be able to find the appropriate workers"

The "turbo" programme, known as Bauturbo, is a German legislative programme designed to speed up housing construction and ease the housing shortage by temporarily bypassing strict zoning regulations and shortening the permit approval process until 2030.

The government intends to halve the Western Balkans' workers' quota starting January 2027. This means only 25,000 individuals from that area could accept a job in Germany each year.

The quota was already insufficient to cover all applications in 2025 and will be exhausted before the end of this year.

The regulation was introduced in 2016 for citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

It allows them to obtain a visa to start employment in Germany under simplified conditions. The rule applies to any type of employment and also includes assistant occupations.