Germany's integration report: more immigrants at work, but commissioner warns against cutting German courses

Germany's government presented its 15th integration report on Wednesday, and its main finding cuts two ways. More people with an immigrant background are working and studying than ever, but large gaps in pay, schooling and child care remain. The federal integration commissioner, Natalie Pawlik of the SPD, used the release to warn her own coalition against cutting German-language courses. The final round of 2027 budget talks begins the next day.

"Integration darf nicht kaputtgespart werden" (Integration must not be cut to pieces), Pawlik said in Berlin, according to her office's press release. "Wenn wir Integration einfordern, müssen wir sie auch ermöglichen: durch gute Bildung, Sprachförderung und den Zugang zu Arbeit" (If we demand integration, we must also make it possible: through good education, language support and access to work).

Her office's page on the report says she views "planned cuts to integration courses and job-related language training" with concern. Those courses are run by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which reports to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of the CSU. Dobrindt has argued since early 2026 that spending on them grew out of control and must come down.

What the report measures#

The report is written by the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) on behalf of the commissioner. It is required by Section 94 of the Residence Act and was cleared within the federal government before release. It tracks 58 indicators in 14 areas, from schooling and jobs to health, housing and hate crime. Most series run from 2009 to 2025. The full report runs to 321 pages and draws on more than 30 data sources.

It uses the term "immigration history" (Einwanderungsgeschichte). That covers people who moved to Germany themselves and the children of two immigrant parents. People with only one immigrant parent are counted as a separate group. In 2025, 21.8 million people, or 26.3 percent of the population, had an immigration history. Adding the 4.2 million with one immigrant parent brings the share to about 30 percent.

Frank Kalter, DeZIM's director, said the report shows "dass Integration weder gleichmäßig noch geradlinig verläuft" (that integration runs neither evenly nor in a straight line). "Fast die Hälfte der Nachkommen von Eingewanderten ist höher gebildet als ihre Eltern. Jedoch bleiben Ungleichheiten, rechtliche Hürden und Diskriminierung" (Almost half of the children of immigrants are better educated than their parents. But inequalities, legal hurdles and discrimination remain), he added.

Jobs: more people working, but a gap remains#

The clearest gains are in the labor market. Since 2024, all of Germany's growth in jobs has come from people without German citizenship, the report says. Many work in fields with staff shortages, such as nursing care and restaurants.

Among people aged 15 to 64, the share in work rose for every group with an immigration history between 2021 and 2025. The biggest jump was among the children of immigrants. People with no immigration history still had the highest rate, at 81.1 percent.

• 2021
• 2025

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Immigrated themselves2021: 68.5%2025: 69.5%

Children of two immigrants2021: 64.7%2025: 69.9%

One immigrant parent2021: 68.9%2025: 72.1%

No immigration history2021: –2025: 81.1%

Immigrated themselvesChildren of two immigrantsOne immigrant parentNo immigration history

Source: 15th Integration Report (DeZIM for the federal integration commissioner)

Show the numbers

Group	2021	2025
Immigrated themselves	68.5%	69.5%
Children of two immigrants	64.7%	69.9%
One immigrant parent	68.9%	72.1%
No immigration history	–	81.1%

The report also gives a narrower measure based on citizenship and social security records. By that count, 64.5 percent of working-age foreign nationals held jobs with social insurance in 2025, against 70.2 percent of Germans. Unemployment among foreign women was 17.4 percent, more than four times the 4.3 percent rate for German women.

Pay gaps persist. In 2024, immigrants earned about 16 percent less than people with no immigration history, and their children about 12 percent less. The report links this partly to more frequent work in jobs that need fewer qualifications. Among full-time employees in the 2025 survey, median gross pay was €3,494 a month for immigrants and €3,676 for their children, against €4,165 for people without an immigration history.

The widest gap is among mothers. In couples with children, 60.7 percent of immigrant women were in work in 2025, compared with 87.7 percent of women with no immigration history. The report names child care as a central barrier.

Schools: rising degrees, early gaps#

The report calls the education gains among the second generation significant. The share of 25- to 34-year-old children of immigrants with a university degree has more than doubled since 2009, to 26.7 percent in 2025. Among university students, the share with two immigrant parents rose from 4.1 percent to 11.2 percent over the same period.

The gaps start early, though. Children with an immigration history are less likely to attend day care, which the report treats as a key early step for learning German.

No immigration history

91.4%

One immigrant parent

85.4%

Children of two immigrants

77.5%

Immigrated themselves

69.2%

Source: Office of the Federal Integration Commissioner, press release, Nov. 11, 2026

Show the numbers

Group	Share in day care
No immigration history	91.4%
One immigrant parent	85.4%
Children of two immigrants	77.5%
Immigrated themselves	69.2%

More than half of immigrants and their children under 18 face at least one risk to success in school. The report counts a risk when a household is at risk of poverty, when both parents have low qualifications or when neither parent works. In 2024, 16.7 percent of young people without a German passport left general schools without any certificate, against 3.3 percent of young Germans.

German courses: the budget fight behind the report#

Pawlik's warning is aimed at a policy fight that has run all year. The integration course is the government's main German-language program for new arrivals. It ends with the "German test for immigrants" (DTZ). According to the report, 55 percent of test takers reach the B1 level, an intermediate standard, and another 32 percent reach A2, a basic level. After five years in Germany, 79 percent of immigrants rate their German as good or very good.

Costs had climbed sharply. Many Ukrainian refugees joined the courses after 2022, and the previous "traffic light" government also let asylum seekers attend when places were free, WELT reported in March. In February 2026, the BAMF stopped admitting most voluntary participants. That group included Ukrainians, EU citizens, asylum seekers whose cases were still open and people with a "toleration" status. The stop affected about 130,000 people, according to the agency.

Dobrindt defended the step. Spending on the courses had reached almost €1.3 billion, he said in May, and with all ministries told to save, the courses had to save too. "Die Kurse sollen für Menschen sein, die eine dauerhafte Bleibeperspektive haben" (The courses should be for people who have a lasting prospect of staying), he said, according to Rheinische Post. He aimed to fund the courses with about €600 million in 2027.

For asylum seekers whose cases are open, the BAMF points to a cheaper and shorter option. It said in February that it would expand "first orientation courses" by about 60 percent, using €134 million from an EU fund through June 2029. "Diese Kurse sind speziell für die Menschen konzipiert, deren Bleibeperspektive offen ist und für die ein vollwertiger Integrationskurs daher der falsche Ansatz wäre" (These courses are designed specifically for people whose prospect of staying is open and for whom a full integration course would therefore be the wrong approach), BAMF President Hans-Eckhard Sommer said in the agency's press release.

In May, the coalition partners reached a compromise. From June 1, voluntary participants could again join, but within a capped quota, with Ukrainians given priority, the taz reported. How many places the quota covers depends on the 2027 budget. Sebastian Fiedler, the SPD's interior policy spokesman, told the taz the admission stop "hätte uns integrations-, gesellschafts- und arbeitsmarktpolitisch mehr geschadet als geholfen" (would have done us more harm than good for integration, society and the labor market). He also said: "Zugleich müssen wir anerkennen, dass die Kosten für den Haushalt buchstäblich durch die Decke gegangen sind" (At the same time, we have to recognize that the costs for the budget literally went through the roof).

The Bundestag's budget committee holds its final "clean-up" session on the 2027 budget starting on Nov. 12, running into the early hours of Friday, POLITICO's Berlin Playbook reported. Pawlik's report lands just before those final decisions. Neither the report nor her office named a specific figure for the course budget she wants.

How the parties see it#

The debate does not split neatly along government and opposition lines. Positions on Germany's party spectrum range widely on migration, and the SPD itself sits on both sides of this dispute.

The commissioner's case. Pawlik argues that the report shows integration works when the state invests in it. Language, schooling and access to jobs, in her view, are the conditions that make it possible to demand integration in the first place. Cutting them, she argues, would weaken the gains the report documents.

The interior ministry's case. Dobrindt and the BAMF argue that full courses should go first to people likely to stay for good, and that a lighter orientation course is the right fit for those whose cases are open. They say this also keeps spending in line with the budget rules every ministry faces.

The Greens' case. The Greens want open access. Filiz Polat, a Green lawmaker, told the taz in May that the coalition remained "auf einem integrationspolitischen Irrweg" (on the wrong track on integration policy). She argued that access must not depend on "starren Kontingenten" (rigid quotas) or "politisch definierten Bleibeperspektiven" (politically defined prospects of staying). She called for "verlässlichen, bedarfsgerechten und unbürokratischen Zugang" (reliable, needs-based and unbureaucratic access) to integration and language courses.

The AfD's case. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), the largest opposition party, wants a different kind of report altogether. In August, René Springer, the AfD group's labor and social policy spokesman, called for a regular study of what migration costs the state, modeled on one by Denmark's finance ministry. The government, he said, refused to present "einen ähnlichen Bericht über die Kosten der Massenmigration" (a similar report on the costs of mass migration), according to the AfD group's statement. The party had asked for such a law in 2023 (Bundestag paper 20/7665). The AfD had not commented on the new report in the sources reviewed for this article.

Belonging, racism and crime#

The report finds that most people with an immigration history feel they belong. In 2025, 81 percent of immigrants and 89 percent of their children said they felt part of Germany, close to the 91 percent among people with no immigration history.

It also records rising hostility. Recorded hate-crime violence rose by about 70 percent from 2021 to 2025. Two-thirds of these cases were classed as right-wing, and the most common motive was hostility toward foreigners. The share of immigrants who said they had faced racial discrimination rose from 12.6 percent in 2022 to 15.5 percent in 2024.

The report addresses crime directly. People without German citizenship made up 14.9 percent of the population. They made up 26.1 percent of crime victims in 2025 and 40 percent of people with a final criminal conviction in 2024. The report says foreign nationals are, on average, more affected by demographic and social risk factors that raise the likelihood of offending. It adds that they are also checked by police and reported to police more often, and that the figures cover only crimes known to police. Crime statistics count citizenship, not immigration history, and include people who stay in Germany only briefly, ZDF noted in its report on the release.

These numbers feed into a wider debate. Earlier this month, Hesse's interior minister defended describing rioters in Frankfurt as "predominantly of migrant background", and Pawlik warned then against blanket group labels.

The wider migration picture#

The report arrives as migration to Germany changes shape. In the 2010s, most immigrants came from other EU countries. In recent years, more have come from outside the EU, the report says. Net migration from Syria is close to zero, according to official statistics reported earlier this month. At the same time, the cabinet has cut a work-visa quota for the Western Balkans.

The report's own figures show why that matters for the course debate. Over 35 percent of immigrants and over 72 percent of their children now hold German citizenship, so many of the people the courses serve will stay for good.

What to watch#

• The budget committee. The Nov. 12 session will set the final 2027 figures, including money for integration and job-related language courses.
• The quota. How many voluntary participants, such as EU citizens and people with open asylum cases, get places under the capped system.
• The data. The Federal Statistical Office's integration dashboard publishes the report's indicators, so readers can check the series directly.

Differing perspectives

How should Germany fund and target its German-language integration courses?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Focus full courses on people likely to stay

  Who holds it: Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)

  Integration courses should return to their original target group: foreigners with a lasting prospect of staying in Germany. Spending rose without control after the courses were opened to more groups, and every ministry now has to save. People whose asylum cases are still open are not left alone. Expanded first orientation courses, paid for with EU funds, teach everyday knowledge and basic German, which is a better fit for them than a full course.

  In their words: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) ↗

• Measure the fiscal cost of migration first

  Who holds it: Alternative for Germany (AfD) Bundestag group, including spokesman René Springer

  Before spending more on integration, the government should measure what migration actually costs. Denmark's finance ministry has calculated how much each group of residents pays in and receives from the state, and found large net costs for some immigrant groups. Successive German governments have refused to produce a similar report. The AfD has called since 2023 for a law requiring regular scientific evaluation of how immigration affects Germany's social security systems.

  In their words: AfD Bundestag group ↗

• Open access based on need, without quotas

  Who holds it: The Greens, including lawmaker Filiz Polat

  Access to integration and language courses should be reliable, based on need and free of red tape. It should not depend on rigid quotas or on politically defined prospects of staying. The February admission stop was a serious mistake, and the May compromise only partly corrects it while keeping integration policy on the wrong track. Courses teach the German that people need to enter the labor market, so the government should stop rationing them.

  In their words: taz ↗

• Protect course funding from cuts

  Who holds it: Federal integration commissioner Natalie Pawlik (SPD)

  The report shows integration works when the state makes it possible: more immigrants are in work, and their children are reaching university in growing numbers. If the country demands integration, it must also enable it through good education, language support and access to jobs. Cutting integration courses and job-related language training would weaken the very conditions behind those gains. Instead of weakening them, the government should strengthen these structures reliably, because successful integration matters for the whole country's future.

  In their words: Office of the Federal Integration Commissioner ↗

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