Germans with migration background feel major discrimination in job market

Nearly half of people with migration background doubt they have same chances in labor market, says expert

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN (AA) - Nearly 50% of people in Germany who have a migration background say there is ongoing discrimination in the job market, according to a report commissioned by the government on the state of integration in the country.

“In the education system and also on the labor market, many of the respondents, regardless of their origin, do not see equal treatment of people with and without a migration background. An assessment that is also confirmed by some studies on education and the labor market,” said one the authors of the Integration Barometer study, Marc Helbling at a press briefing in Berlin on Wednesday.

“About a third of those surveyed think that pupils with a migration background are not given the same grades for the same performance. Even more respondents, around half, doubt that people with a migration background have the same opportunities on the labor market with the same qualifications as those without a migration background,” he added.

In 2021, 22.3 million people and thus 27.2% of the population in Germany had a migration background which is an increase of 2% from the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

A person is considered to have a migration background, if they or at least one parent was not born with German citizenship.

Around 53% of the population with a migration background (almost 11.8 million people) had German citizenship and nearly 47% had foreign citizenship (almost 10.6 million people).

Migration is expected to reach a new high this year as Germany is expected to take in a total of 1.2 million migrants by the end of this year, up 35% more than during the 2015 refugee crisis.

Most people who arrived in Germany as refugees this year have been fleeing Ukraine after the Russian invasion. Almost 10 months since the war began, an estimated 100 new Ukrainian refugees arrive every day in Berlin alone. In 2015, the majority of refugees were fleeing war in Syria.

Meanwhile, around 200,000 people applied for asylum in Germany this year, the majority of whom were from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

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