The German government said Tuesday it will expand a system of six-month visas allowing people from outside the European Union to seek jobs as part of an effort to tackle a shortfall of skilled workers.
It also said it has agreed on a solution to help rejected but well-settled asylum-seekers, an issue that has divided the coalition.
The six-month visas, currently available to university graduates, will be expanded to migrants with professional qualifications, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said after leaders of the governing coalition met.
He stressed that Germany, Europe's biggest economy, doesn't want "immigration into the welfare system." Applicants will have to prove they can support themselves and speak German.
Like many other European countries, Germany is trying to strike a balance between the needs of its labour market, an aging native population and popular concern about immigration.
Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said the government also agreed on a "pragmatic" solution to resolve the status of rejected asylum-seekers who have found work in Germany and are well-integrated.
He said the government aims to give them a "reliable status ... so we don't send the wrong people home and then try hard to recruit skilled workers from third countries."
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