The key facts

  • About 30% of Germany's population has a migration background
  • Employment among migrants is almost 70%, higher than in most EU countries
  • The number of workers without German citizenship rose from 1.8 million in 2009 to 5.8 million in 2025

Government reports on migrant integration

In Berlin, the German government's integration commissioner Nataly Pavlic (SPD), who has held the post since last year, presented the regular report, which is prepared every two years. Her overall assessment was positive: 'Integration is steadily improving, despite persisting obstacles and challenges.' According to her, residents of the country expect that people permanently living in Germany will learn the language and abide by the laws. The report was prepared by a team led by Frank Kalter, director of the German Center for Research on Integration and Migration (DeZIM), based on official statistics, surveys and independent studies.

Employment is growing, but not equally everywhere

According to the report, about 30% of Germany's population today has a migration background — including those with only one migrant parent. Employment among migrants stands at almost 70% — higher than in most other EU countries. The main growth came in healthcare and social services: while in 2009 about 1.8 million people without German citizenship worked in Germany, by 2025 their number had more than tripled to 5.8 million.

Problem areas: women, youth, crime

Serious difficulties nevertheless persist. In almost all migrant groups, women find it harder to get a job, especially if they have children and their husbands are employed: only about 60% of such women work, compared with almost 88% of women in families with German passports. Barriers in access to education and the labor market were noted among young men who came to Germany as refugees. If only citizenship is considered, the share of non-German citizens among those convicted is 40% — noticeably higher than their share of the population; at the same time, people without a German passport more often become victims of crimes themselves.

Funding cuts and the dispute over the status of working refugees

Pavlic emphasized that language learning is the foundation of any successful integration, yet the government cut spending earlier this year: many integration courses are no longer held or receive less funding. The commissioner herself, despite being a member of the government, sharply criticized these cuts. In addition, she and her Social Democratic party colleagues advocate more secure residence permits for people who have long worked in Germany, primarily from Syria and Ukraine: on Tuesday the SPD parliamentary group adopted a corresponding document proposing to extend to refugees the existing rules allowing workers to remain in the country. Whether the conservatives of the CDU/CSU, who lead Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition, will support this is unknown: asked about it, Pavlic replied, 'ask the interior minister' — Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), known for his hard line on migration policy.