Annett Rosenbaum cannot but notice the trend. The 31-year-old legal specialist works at the Kiel branch of the Indian IT group Wipro Technologies. She is a member of the “Overseas Operations Team”. The department coordinates business in Europe. Wipro in Kiel is the contact centre for German companies that want to have their IT set up and maintained by a service provider because it’s cheaper than running their own specialist department. That’s why Wipro is bringing more and more Indian IT experts to Germany. And that is Annett Rosenbaum’s job. She organizes visas and looks after the colleagues who come to Germany. She takes care of the necessary formalities with the immigration authorities, the Foreign Office, consulates, chambers of commerce and labour agencies – and repeats the same procedure at least 300 times a year. That’s the number of colleagues the head office now sends over to Germany on fixed-term assignments. And the numbers are rising – not only at Wipro.
Many Indian companies are now entering the German market. Wipro is just one of about 300 Indian firms that have recently been attracted to Germany. They usually establish a branch or look for investment opportunities. “The Indians make a point of looking for companies with local know-how to gain a foothold on the German – and European – market,” says Dirk Matter, head of the German-Indian Chamber of Commerce in Dusseldorf. It’s usually too expensive and complicated for them to found their own branches, so they buy up companies or form a group. In this way they take over the German staff, the regular customers, sales and distribution. Mr. Matter says that the rising propensity to invest has helped induce a change of attitude in India. “Previously, Indian companies that invested abroad were regarded as traitors to their country. These days people feel proud when a domestic company is able to take over a western firm.” So far the experiences of German enterprise promotion agencies have been mainly positive. “From our perspective, the companies that have come to Germany so far have been developing very well,” says Markus Wittmann, for example. He heads the Bavarian state government’s “Invest in Bavaria” department. “The companies have a long-term strategy and are very well financed. As a result their group grows, and so does its number of locations in Bavaria.” A similar opinion is expressed by many of Wittmann’s colleagues who are responsible for enterprise promotion at local authorities or the Länder.
Parallel to these developments the Indian community in Germany is growing. There are around 45,000 Indians currently living here. Although their numbers are small compared with the major immigrant groups, they have nevertheless been rising continuously in recent years. According to the Federal Statistical Office about 10,000 people come from India to Germany each year. The number of people leaving the country is about 8,000. And the German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD, reports that in 2005 and 2006 there were about 4,000 Indian students in Germany: five times more than five years earlier. “More and more Indian students are coming who have to pay their own way. That makes their situation tougher. But they’re still not discouraged, so the trend is very positive,” says Klaus Podewils. He was head of the DAAD office in New Delhi until the end of June. When asked about the reasons for these recent developments, Mr. Podewils doesn’t need to think for long. “Germany’s political interest in India has increased tremendously. If a single minister travels to India three times in 18 months, that’s a clear political statement, and it’s understood as such.” He is referring to Annette Schavan, Federal Minister of Education and Research.
The chambers of commerce and the industry departments of the German local authorities are responding. Hardly a month passes by without a large delegation from Stuttgart, Bremen, Munich or Cologne going on a tour of India to cultivate contacts. There are seminars for investors. There is an air of excitement. But experts complain about one particular problem: Germany’s immigration regulations. Sometimes Josef Winkler shakes his head in bewilderment when he has to talk about Germany’s immigration regulations yet again. Mr. Winkler, 34, is a member of the German Bundestag for the Greens. He is chairman of the German-Indian Parliamentary Friendship Group, which also advises the Federal Chancellor. So Mr. Winkler is an expert. His complexion and eyes are darker that his name might suggest. His mother is Indian. Some of his family live in England, which lies outside the Schengen Agreement area. “That’s why my parents usually visit their relatives, rather than vice versa. It’s just a lot easier,” says Mr. Winkler.
And that is why resourceful German local authorities are promising their own solutions. For instance, the city of Cologne woos Indian companies by offering fast-track processing of residence and work permits to encourage them to settle in Germany. “It all goes through within four weeks,” says Kiran Malhotra. He is Indian himself, an entrepreneur who has been living in Germany since 1971. In 2006 he was appointed to a newly created position: the City of Cologne’s Economic Ambassador for India. Germany is gradually learning that business is one thing, but that it thrives better when you understand the mentality of Indian business people. Mr. Malhotra says: “Indians appreciate being looked after personally, more than we are accustomed to in Germany. They are self-assured and purposeful. And they also expect this of their business partners and authorities.” He says Cologne’s city authorities recently completed the formalities in just two weeks for an Indian colleague who was needed to install a software programme for a German client. The company has confirmed that this was a significant reason for their move from Frankfurt to Cologne.
As labour-market explain, the advantages of such immigration are by no means new: jobs for Germans, subsequent business settlement, investment and competitiveness. This is why they have been lobbying for an easing of immigration regulations for years. Or are there serious grounds for apprehension? No. Many Indian immigrants who came to work in Germany have since either returned to India or emigrated to the USA. And most of those who have settled permanently in Germany belong to the well-integrated groups in society. They work in typical German middle-class professions and have good incomes as doctors, business people or scientists.
Bijon Chatterji is just one example. He is 29 years old and works as a molecular biologist at the Fraunhofer Institute in Hanover. His parents immigrated to Germany from India. His father came here as a student in the 1950s. He stayed and became an engineer. He told his son: “Without a decent education you have no chance of getting on.” Today the son says: “Without a decent education you have no chance of getting on.” His German is very refined and accent-free. It’s natural to him. He grew up in Germany and holds a German passport.He is glad he is now sensing a growing understanding for Indian culture and mentality in Germany. He says he notices this in the reports from and about India in German newspapers. He reads these out of interest, and because in his spare time he is editor-in-chief of the Internet portal www.theinder.net, one of the most well-known India platforms on the German net. Mr. Chatterji has no difficulty in holding long conversations on the mentality of Germans and Indians, German reliability and Indian patience. He says he likes India but is going to stay in Germany, because he can relate better to the mentality.
The Chatterjis provide one of those examples that make it so easy to forget what great adjustments are involved when you move from one culture to another. Florian Abbenseth, for example, is well aware of this. The business studies graduate is 33 years old and works for the Betapharm pharmaceutical company in Augsburg. For a time he was a management assistant. When the company with its 370 employees was bought out in 2006 by the Indian group Dr. Reddy’s, Mr. Abbenseth suddenly became the integration coordinator of a company listed on the stock exchange, a global player with a German-Indian interface.
Mr. Abbenseth compiled information for the new colleagues, helped complete the formalities with the authorities and found an apartment for his new boss. She is Indian and spends most of her time working in the pharmaceutical centre of Hyderabad. She spends one to two weeks a month in Augsburg. Mr. Abbenseth says he has made friends with another Indian colleague in the meantime.
