Germany's noncitizen workforce hit 5.8 million in 2025, while a new integration report shows that job and school outcomes remain sharply different across citizenship and family-background groups.
Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration Natalie Pawlik submitted the 15th Integration Report to the Cabinet on Nov. 11. Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (DeZIM) prepared it on her behalf, drawing on 58 indicators across 14 subject areas.
The report counts 21.8 million people in private households as having an “immigration history” in 2025: 16.4 million immigrants and 5.4 million descendants. It counts another 4.2 million people who had one immigrant parent separately. These background categories differ from citizenship classifications used for some employment, education and crime figures.
The number of employed people without German citizenship rose from about 1.8 million in 2009 to 5.8 million in 2025. Among immigrants ages 15 to 64, the employment rate was 69.5% last year, up from 68.5% in 2021; the report says that rate exceeds those in most European Union countries. It identifies health and social services, care, hospitality, and transport and storage as sectors where workers with an immigration history help meet labor demand. In health and social services, the number of employees without German citizenship climbed 38.9% from 2022 to 2025, reaching 716,208 from 515,617.
Employment remained lower for immigrant women in couples with children: 60.7% were employed in 2025, compared with 87.7% of women without an immigration history in the same household category. The report cites childcare responsibilities as one factor.
Education measures show gains as well as a gap based on citizenship. In 2025, 87.2% of descendants of immigrants ages 18 to 24 had completed upper-secondary education or were enrolled in education or training, compared with 80.8% in 2009. In 2024, 16.7% of students without German citizenship left school without a qualification, versus 3.3% of German citizens. The report points to social, financial and educational risks and delays in school access for some refugee children.
For violent crime, police recorded 628 suspects per 100,000 people without German citizenship in 2025, compared with 158 per 100,000 German citizens. The report cautions that suspect records are not court findings and notes demographic and social differences between the groups.
“Integration works — but not by itself,” Pawlik said in an English translation of her German statement accompanying the report.
