Germany’s left-liberal traffic light coalition is set to spend 48.2 billion euros of taxpayer cash on costs associated with migration, up from 42 billion last year, the latest figures from the federal ministry of finance have revealed.
The overall costs covering reception, housing, migration registration, educational support for children and youth, and various social expenses equal Germany’s national defense budget, the Berlin-based daily Die Welt reports.
Based on existing arrangements, the federal government is set to provide 28.6 billion euros this year, while the combined contribution from states and municipalities will amount to 19.6 billion euros.
The German state’s rising expenditure on migration, which comes as a result of increased migration into the country, coincides with an uptick in crime.
Germany, under Scholz’s so-called “traffic light” coalition government, has witnessed a sharp uptick in crime, especially violent crime. The number of recorded criminal offenses across the country’s 16 federal states rose by 11.5% in 2023, with authorities recording approximately 5.6 million crimes—approximately 600,000 more cases compared to 2022, per figures from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
The proportion of migrant suspects—a cohort that includes asylum seekers, tolerated persons, and people illegally residing in the country—has increased notably, up 14.8% from 12.1% the previous year. Non-German nationals, meanwhile, accounted for a disproportionate percentage of criminal suspects, at 37.4%, well up from 33.8% the year before.
Days ago, while speaking to the Berlin-based newspaper Junge Freiheit, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel argued that the standards for revoking German citizenship of dual-nationals convicted of criminal offenses ought to be lowered, citing the increasing number of sex crimes.
“The automatism of not deporting criminals because they also have German citizenship must be abolished,” Weidel said, suggesting that “the hurdles for revoking German citizenship” need to be lowered. “Particularly with regard to the ever-increasing number of sexual crimes, the protection of citizens must finally have top priority,” she added.
Weidel’s comments come against a backdrop that saw gang rapes in Germany climb to a record high of 789 cases last year, more than two a day. Despite foreign nationals making up around 14% of the population, they accounted for 50% of the suspects. Meanwhile, German citizens accounted for the remaining half. It is worth noting, however, that all crime statistics record dual nationals as only German, as presently there is no dual national category.
