As the far right rises in eastern Germany, companies struggle to attract skilled foreign workers
As the far-right Alternative for Germany gains more power in eastern Germany, companies there find it increasingly hard to attract the skilled foreign workers they desperately need
JENA, Germany — When electrical engineer Preetam Gaikwad first moved to Jena in 2013, she was smitten by what the eastern German city had to offer: a prestigious university, top research institutions, and cutting-edge technology companies, global leaders in their field.
Eleven years later, the Indian native takes a more sober view.
“I’m really worried about the development of the political situation here,” Gaikwad, 43 said. Jena is in the eastern German state of Thuringia, which has elections on Sept. 1.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, is currently leading the polls with about 30% support, far ahead of the center-right Christian Democrats (21%) and the center-left Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (7%).
The AfD’s anti-foreigner stance is the cornerstone of its campaign, raising concern among businesses like Jenoptik, Gaikwad’s employer. The company, which supplied lens assemblies for Perseverance, the NASA remote vehicle on Mars, employs 1,680 people in Jena and more than 4,600 globally.
Jenoptik, one of the few internationally successful businesses in Jena,depends on being able to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce, much of it from outside Germany. The rise of the AfD is making that more difficult, says Jenoptik CEO Stefan Traeger.
More and more prospective employees tell Traeger that while they would love to work for Jenoptik, they won’t take a job there because they don’t want to live in a state dominated by a hard-right party that ostracizes migrants or other minorities such as members of the
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