The new telephone hotline Working and living in Germany offers multilingual advisory service on matters related to immigration and integration in Germany. Immigrants, professionals, students as well as trainees can obtain personal support on questions related to topics such as residences law, German language courses and employment in Germany.

The telephone hotline is part of the Qualified Professionals Initiative, a broader project that also include the Make it in Germany web portal, run by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. 

Given the good trends on the German labour market and the possibility that demographic changes will create a shortfall of workers, Germany found necessary to secure a supply of skilled professionals. Therefore, to encourage qualified professionals from all over the world to pursue a career in the country, the Federal Government put in place a number of measures. These include the easing immigration rules and making it easier to get recognised professional qualifications obtained abroad, for instance with the EU Blue Card, introduced in 2012. The amended Employment Ordinance in 2013 also opened up the labour market to non-EU professionals with vocational training.

The Make it in Germany portal underpins the government’s measures to foster a ‘culture of welcome’ and promote immigration by professionals with specific skills. Moreover, in a number of pilot projects, 'Make it in Germany' advisors in India, Indonesia and Vietnam are providing local support for qualified professionals interested in migrating to Germany.