A recent shocking report has revealed that 63.5% of welfare recipients in Germany, known as citizen’s allowance beneficiaries, are immigrants.
Data from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), shared with Welt newspaper, shows over 2.5 million of the more than 4 million welfare recipients in Germany are either foreigners or individuals with foreign roots, including those whose parents were born abroad.
The financial strain on German taxpayers is significant. Last year, the government spent €12.2 billion on citizen’s allowance payments and nearly €50 billion on immigration and border protection. Ukrainians fleeing the war since 2022 accounted for €5.8 billion of the welfare costs, followed by Syrians at €3.5 billion and Afghans at €1.3 billion. Interestingly, over half of welfare recipients in June 2024 were employed but earned too little to make ends meet, prompting criticism of businesses exploiting this low-wage labor force.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party sharply criticized the situation, stating, “Our social state is being looted.” They attributed the issue to longstanding mass migration policies supported by parties like the CDU and the governing coalition. The AfD accused CDU leader Friedrich Merz of hypocrisy, claiming his party facilitated the rise in migrant welfare dependency.
Previously, reports estimated that nearly half of welfare recipients were foreign nationals. However, the inclusion of individuals with migration backgrounds in the latest data paints a clearer picture of the demographic shift within Germany’s welfare system.
