Official government data has revealed that nearly 900,000 migrants, around half of those who arrived in Germany during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016, still live on social welfare benefits.
The data, released by Germany’s Federal Employment Agency following a request from Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) MP René Springer, has revealed that 893,000 of the asylum seekers who came to Germany throughout the 2015/16 migrant crisis are currently recipients of Hartz IV social benefit payments, Junge Freiheit reports.
Of the some 1.6-1.8 million asylum seekers who arrived during the two-year crisis—most of whom originated from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Pakistan, and Nigeria—only 460,00 are employed, according to the Federal Employment Agency’s figures. Half of those who are working are employed in Germany’s unskilled labor sector, with many still receiving social benefits as a result of their low incomes.
The employment agency’s report also notes that 670,000 asylum seekers are either out of work or are currently looking for work, with 235,000 unemployed and 437,000 searching for employment. From both groups, 11% possess professional qualifications, about 4% of whom have professional training while the other 7% have academic training.
At the moment, the percentage of asylum seekers living on Hartz IV standard benefits stands at around 50%, with the number climbing to nearly 60% for Syrians. In stark contrast, 5.6% of German citizens are recipients of the Hartz IV social welfare benefits.
Among the employed, taxpaying asylum seekers, 43.3% hold what are known as “school leaving certificates,” the equivalent of a high school diploma in the U.S., a General Certificate of Education (GCE) in the UK, and a Matura or Abitur in much of Europe. Consequently, the percentage of asylum seekers employed in so-called helper occupations is quite high, at just over 50%—a figure which has jumped by nearly 7% since January 2016. Over the same period, the percentage of employed asylum seekers working in the skilled labor sector has declined.
“Despite all the euphemisms by the government and established media, the massive immigration into our social systems can no longer be denied,” AfD MP René Springer said, in light of the less than stellar figures, adding that the billions of euros in taxes which have been spent on integration measures have thus far been “spent mostly ineffectively.”
Attempts to train the large mass of newcomers, unfortunately, have gone largely unsuccessful, with 15,000 of the 25,000 (60%) asylum seekers who’ve applied for Germany’s vocational training system remaining unplaced.
Payments to Hartz IV social benefit recipients without a German passport have doubled since 2007, climbing to nearly 13 billion euros as of 2020. This is precisely why “Germany needs a restrictive immigration policy that effectively prevents poverty migration,” Springer said, adding that “Denmark shows us that such a policy is possible if the political will is there.”
Even though German workers bear the second-highest tax burden on earned income in the world, prominent left-liberals in the ruling ‘stoplight coalition’ have called for Hartz IV benefits to be extended to all asylum seekers immediately upon their arrival—even those who remain in the country after their applications have been rejected.
If introduced into law, the measure would see rejected asylum seekers placed on equal footing with unemployed German workers, allowing them to receive 450 euros each month, as The European Conservative has previously reported.
