Germany’s integration report puts immigrant employment near 70%

Nearly 70% of immigrants in Germany are employed, research leader Frank Kalter said as Integration Commissioner Natalie Pawlik presented the country’s 15th integration report in Berlin on 11 November 2026. Pawlik said integration was improving steadily, while hurdles remained.

The number of people without German citizenship working in the country rose from about 1.8 million in 2009 to 5.8 million in 2025, DW said, citing the report data. That count is based on citizenship, whereas the immigrant employment rate concerns people who themselves moved to Germany.

What the employment figures measure

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, put the employment rate for immigrants ages 15–64 at 70% in 2025, up from 57% in 2005. The rate for people without an immigration history was 81% in 2025. Destatis defines an immigration history as applying to people who immigrated themselves or whose two parents immigrated since 1950.

DW’s broader description of immigrant background includes people with one immigrant parent. By contrast, Destatis’s immigration-history definition covers people who immigrated themselves or whose two parents immigrated since 1950.

The figures are initial results from the microcensus, a population survey. They cover people in private main-residence households and exclude those living in communal accommodation, including refugees housed there.

Kalter, who directs the German Center for Integration and Migration Research, led the report team. Its work drew on government statistics, surveys and independent studies. Pawlik, a Social Democratic Party lawmaker, has held the commissioner role since 2025; the report appears every two years.

Barriers for mothers and young refugees

The report identifies difficulties finding work for women in nearly all immigrant groups, particularly those with children and employed husbands. About 60% of women in such immigrant families are employed, compared with nearly 88% of women in families with German passports. Young men who arrived as refugees also face barriers to education and employment.

Pawlik calls learning German the foundation of successful integration and has criticized government cuts to integration courses. Savings measures earlier in 2026 left many courses discontinued or receiving less public funding.

A proposal for working refugees

On 10 November 2026, Social Democratic lawmakers adopted a position paper proposing that existing rights allowing workers to stay in Germany also apply to refugees. Pawlik and her party have especially highlighted people from Syria and Ukraine who have worked in Germany for some time; the proposal would give working refugees more secure residency.

Support from the governing Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union remains unresolved. Asked about it, Pawlik referred the question to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of the Christian Social Union.