Foreign Nationals Make Up 37% of Germany’s Unemployed

Germany’s latest labor figures reveal a stark imbalance. Foreign nationals account for 37% of the unemployed, while 52.6% have a migration background, compared with around 30% in the population as a whole.

Germany’s latest unemployment figures are raising fresh questions about whether mass immigration has delivered the economic benefits its supporters promised. Photo: Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters

Foreign nationals make up 37% of Germany’s unemployed, according to a special analysis by the Federal Employment Agency first reported by the German news outlet NIUS. The figures relate to December 2025, when three million people were registered as unemployed. Of these, 1.09 million did not hold a German passport. More than one in three of the unemployed was therefore a foreign national.

Nationality captures only part of the migration-related unemployment picture. Once naturalized, a person is recorded as German in the standard statistics. The special analysis therefore also considered family background. It found that 307,601 unemployed people had immigrated to Germany before acquiring German citizenship. A further 153,000 were German citizens with at least one immigrant parent.

In total, 52.6% of Germany’s unemployed had a migration background, compared with around 30% of the population as a whole. The share among the unemployed was therefore more than 20 percentage points higher.

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Unemployment Tops 10% Among Naturalized Citizens

Considerable disparities also emerged among population groups. The unemployment rate among naturalized citizens exceeded 10%, compared with a national average of 6.2% and just 3.8% among Germans without a migration background.

Applicants for German citizenship are generally required to demonstrate that they can support themselves and any dependants without state assistance. The relevant criteria primarily concern benefits paid under Books Two and Twelve of the German Social Code. Citizenship law provides exceptions for certain groups and circumstances. In 2025, 332,500 people acquired German citizenship, the highest figure since naturalization statistics were introduced in 2000.

The cut-off date for the unemployment statistics does not indicate when those concerned lost their jobs. The data therefore does not reveal how many were already unemployed during the naturalization process. Others may have lost their jobs only after acquiring citizenship.

Source: Federal Employment Agency/NIUS/Destatis

Springer Criticizes Labor Minister Bas

AfD social policy spokesman René Springer regards the special analysis as evidence of a misguided naturalization policy. The high proportion of unemployed German citizens who had immigrated to Germany before acquiring citizenship showed “that welfare cases were naturalized on a large scale”, NIUS quoted him as saying. Springer called for an immediate halt to the current policy and also directed his criticism at Federal Labor Minister Bärbel Bas of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Bas had said that there was no immigration into Germany’s welfare system.

The unemployment figures alone do not indicate whether an individual is receiving state benefits. They do, however, show how strongly people with a migration background are represented among jobseekers and how wide the disparity is between them and the rest of the population.

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German citizenship law has been amended twice in quick succession. A 2024 reform reduced the standard minimum residence period from eight years to five and introduced naturalization after three years for applicants who demonstrated exceptional integration. This accelerated route was abolished in October 2025, while the standard five-year route remained in place.