If it goes too easy it risks the fury of unemployed Germans. The authorities can only do so much, concedes Stuttgart district official Frank Greven, 35. The way Germany treated these foreign people in the past is one factor. The European community is another. Accordingly, nobody has a solution.
Proposals diverge widely across the political spectrum.
On the left, the unions would raise the minimum wage still higher, claiming that increase would render unskilled foreigners nearly as expensive as more skilled Germans. On the right, employer groups favor lowering the minimum wage to make the labor market less enticing to outsiders. Others regard it as a natural outgrowth of exuberant Europeanization. I'm not surprised at anything anymore.