Data from the German federal government shows that the overwhelming majority of those receiving welfare payments, known as citizen’s money in Germany, have a foreign background.
The statistics from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), provided to Welt newspaper, show that of the more than 4 million people who can work but receive social benefits, more than 2.5 million have a migration background, constituting 63.5 percent. This group includes foreigners and those who have a foreign background, which means their parents may have been born abroad.
The cost of providing this social welfare rose to €12.2 billion last year, but in total, Germany spent nearly €50 billion on immigrants and protecting its border last year.
Many of those receiving this money are actually Ukrainians who have been fleeing the war since 2022. They cost German taxpayers €5.8 billion last year while Syrians cost €3.5 billion. Afghans were behind with €1.3 billion.
Not everyone who receives this allowance is unemployed, but they often receive so little money that they are eligible for additional welfare support. In June 2024, 57 percent of citizen’s allowance recipients received this benefit without being unemployed. Critics argue that this pool of labor provides a cheap workforce that employers are exploiting.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party responded to the news, writing: “Our social state is being looted. This is the result of the policy of mass migration, driven by the CDU and the traffic light parties for years. CDU chief Merz stands out with hypocritical criticism of this development, but without the CDU, we wouldn’t be feeding a big city with more than 2.5 million migrants from citizens’ money. It is the CDU that systematically blocks a migration turnaround in all the federal states where it governs.”
As Remix News previously noted, it was reported that nearly 50 percent of welfare recipients are foreign; however, the new data also includes those with a “migration background.” The new figure provides a more accurate view of the makeup of welfare recipients.