Blue Cards

 
 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

attend	grown-up	kindergarten
citizen	hold (2)	tongue (2)
sick	amount	unreasonable
mood	specialist	subsidiary
whole	cold (2)	pay/paid/paid (2)
native	long-term	accountant
audit	device (2)	manufacture
global	location	around (3)
rule (2)	attention	couple (2)
review	situation	control (2)
join	security	compliance
local	at least	immigrant
proper	academic	qualification
ideal	care (2)	recognition
site	free (2)	sit/sat/sat
team	ongoing	submit (2)
hurdle	bilingual	competition
growth	valuable	on their way
settle	applicant	doesn’t matter
proof	period (3)	authorities
option	colleague	human resources
perfect	employee	room for improvement
Zumba	candidate	bureaucracy
benefit	certificate	qualification
taste	form (2)	spirit of things

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

This is the Sanchez family with two of their three sons. The oldest boy has been attending kindergarten for the past six months. Alexis’ native tongue is Spanish. Now he has to learn German.

Hugo Sanchez, Mexican citizen holding EU Blue Card: “I see that with my other colleagues who have come here from Mexico. Their small children all learned perfect German in kindergarten.”

But their son isn’t in a very good mood today. And the teacher knows why: a lot of the children are sick with the colds at the moment.

Alexis’ mother likes the fact that attention is paid to each child.

Janette Zamudio, has three sons: “They play the whole time here. They’re free here. In Mexico the little ones have to sit like grown-ups. It’s certainly different here.”

Bad Homburg, their new home, is like something from a picture book. Hugo Sanchez cycles to work, something that would not be possible in many parts of Mexico.

He worked for Fresenius back home. He’s an accountant and he speaks English and Spanish.

Fresenius makes medical devices for hospitals, manufacturing them in factories around the world. Sanchez audits the business numbers from all the global locations.

So the company needs specialists like Sanchez. With the blue card, he and his family can live and work in Germany long-term.

Hugo Sanchez, Mexican citizen holding EU Blue Card: “We visited the subsidiary for around two weeks. And during these two weeks, we made a review of the financial situation and how is their control, how is their security, how is their compliance of the company with local rules.”

Six colleagues from four different countries is normal at Fresenius. Like all the accountants here, Sanchez has to be at least bilingual and have the proper academic qualifications.

Martin Dreher, Fresenius Medical Care Accountant: “He’s an ideal candidate because he has learned about our business already, being in Mexico for a couple of years, and he’s familiar with our products. He was even working in Mexico where we have production sites.

So knows about our products. He knows about our rules already.

So this is the ideal situation if someone is joining our team.”

Hugo Sanchez, Mexican citizen holding EU Blue Card: “My first option is I want to stay here for a long period of time. This is the first option. Even my wife and I talked about that.

And we think that it’s interesting to have a life here because we are so happy.”

Now that Sanchez has the blue card, he has to learn German. That’s the next hurdle for all immigrants.

Martin Dreher, Fresenius Medical Care Accountant: “There’s the competition for good and valuable employees. That doesn’t matter which country they are from. And of course in Germany as we know, we don’t have the ongoing growth of the population, so we won’t find them entirely in Germany, and we need more people coming from outside of Germany.”

Hugo Sanchez gets help settling in from his employer. For instance, the company helped him submit documentation to the immigration authorities. The human resources manager at Fresenius, Michael Brull, got him proof of yearly income.

Blue card applicants have to earn at least forty-eight thousand euros (€48,000). Bruh think that’s an unreasonably high amount and says there’s room for lots of other improvements.

Michael Brull, Fresenius Senior Human Resource Manager: “We as employers would benefit from less bureaucracy, meaning simplification of the forms, simpler recognition of academic qualifications. For instance, we would be very happy if we could submit certificates in English.”

Hugo Sanchez’s children are well on their way to integrating into German life. A bit of Zumba in the afternoon give them a taste of German sporting clubs and Hugo Sanchez and his wife are getting into the spirit of things as well.

 

 

Questions

1. Hugo Sanchez and his family are from Spain. True or false?

2. Do their children attend an international, English-language school? Are German schools more strict, rigid and disciplined than in other countries?

3. Sanchez is an engineer. Is this right or wrong? What does he do? What are his responsibilities?

4. Does the Sanchez family want to live in the United States?

5. Do they only speak Spanish all the time?

6. Why are Fresenius and other German companies recruiting employees from abroad (outside the EU)?

7. Any worker can receive a blue card. Is this correct or incorrect?
 
 
A. What is the labor market like in your country? Is there a shortage or glut of workers? Is there high, medium or low unemployment?

B. Many foreigners live and work in my city. Yes or no? Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they do?

C. Do people from your country migrate and work abroad? What are some destinations?

D. What may happen in the future?

E. Should people and governments do anything?