Germany’s employment minister Wedneday bucked the trend across Europe by calling for more immigration — to tackle the country’s skills shortage.

Just weeks after Angela Merkel fought off a government crisis over migrant policy, Hubertus Heil pledged to present a new immigration law by the end of the year to make it easier for skilled workers to move to Germany — in some cases, without securing a job first.

“We already have a shortage of skilled workers in individual sectors and regions,” Mr Heil told Handelsblatt newspaper Wednesday. “We have to tread carefully. We do not want immigration into our benefits system, but pragmatic solutions to our need for skilled labour.”

Mr Heil’s comments come after his centre-Left Social Democratic Party (SPD) secured Mrs Merkel’s backing for a new immigration law as its price for rescuing her government from crisis a few weeks ago.

While demands for tougher border controls from the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, and his conservative Christian Social Union party (CSU) made the international headlines, the reforms put forward by the SPD could yet prove more far-reaching.

One of the proposals being considered for the new immigration law is a provision to allow those with foreign qualifications to move to Germany for six months without securing a job first.