Sour German economy sends young workers packing

Even the much-touted "green card" program - launched in 2000 to bring high-tech experts to Germany - has fallen on hard times. Of 20,000 work permits made available through the program last year, only 3,500 have been used. The program - which will not be renewed after it expires July 31 - has little purpose to serve. Many smaller high-tech companies have gone bankrupt, and larger ones are laying off workers.

Emigration from Germany is nothing new. There have been several large waves of Germans leaving the country - most notably in 1873 following a severe Berlin stock market crash and depression. Following Hitler's rise to power, there was a large exodus of professionals, academics, and liberal thinking Germans, among them many Jews.

While experts note that the current outflow is nowhere near comparable to previous waves, they say it is troubling because of the youth and comparatively high level of education among those leaving. The exodus also further compounds the problem of Germany's already low birthrate and rapidly aging population.

It isn't just high-tech industries that are affected.

Stefan Linnhoff, a lawyer hoping finally to get a start in his career, left for the US in May after winning the green-card lottery. After years of second-rate jobs and poorly paid internships in Germany, Mr. Linnhoff is now working as a graduate assistant in the business school at Berry College in Rome, Ga., where he plans to earn a master's degree in business administration. "Having undergone a long, sound education," he says, "one at least expects to be given a chance to prove oneself. I have no problem starting on the bottom rung of the ladder or working diligently when times are hard. But where is the long-term perspective? In my case, I am 33; I couldn't wait any longer."

Teachers are fleeing the underfunded German school system for Switzerland. Scientists are heading to North America for the attractive grant money on offer. Engineers are heading for the Netherlands. Norway is actively recruiting doctors and nurses in Germany, and Ireland is trolling for customer-relations specialists.

According to Raphaelwerk, however, the US remains the most popular destination aside from the easier-to-reach countries of the European Union, with more than 1 in 10 of all those considering leaving Germany hoping to land in America.

While many of those who leave Germany end up returning later, says Luedecke, the majority never look back.

For Sammereier, who hails from the small town of Traunreuth, east of Munich, the possibility that he will never live in Germany again loomed large as he deliberated over moving to Melbourne.

"It is, actually, a pretty big decision," he says. "I think that after I have been down in Australia for a couple of years I will have built up a life for myself, and I think that the possibility that I will come back to Germany is very small - and especially when one looks at the economic situation in Germany. It has been like this for almost 10 years, Sammereier says, "and it isn't going to get better so quickly."

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