Worker-starved Germany will ease immigration rules to attract foreign jobseekers, including giving well-integrated irregular migrants in employment a shot at staying, ministers said yesterday, reports AFP from Berlin.

In a deal hammered out after marathon talks deep into the night, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU, their Bavarian allies CSU and the centre-left SPD agreed on a new strategy to combat fast-ageing Germany’s worker shortage.

Migrants without residency permits who are awaiting decisions on their asylum applications or their deportation may get to stay if they are gainfully employed and can show they have joined the fabric of German society.

Jobseekers from outside the EU—including, for example, cooks, metallury workers or IT technicians—can also come to Germany for six months to try and find employment, provided they speak German.

Manpower from the bloc of around 500 million people would not suffice to keep the German economy ticking, the coalition noted.

“That’s why we need workers from third countries,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told a press conference about the strategy that has yet to become a law and be passed by parliament.