Germany’s spending on social benefits has hit a new record, with foreigners now accounting for half of all recipients, Bild reported on July 7, citing a petition by the Alternative for Germany party.
In 2023, spending on social benefits in Germany, known as “citizen income,” will reach a record 4.05 trillion rubles.
Approximately 5.5 million people are receiving assistance, half of whom are foreigners. Compared to 2010, when the proportion of foreign recipients was 19.6%, by 2023 this figure will rise to 47.3%.
This growth significantly exceeds the increase in the proportion of foreigners in the country’s total population.
The AfD political party published the data after an official request for information on those receiving social benefits, amid a decrease in the total number of beneficiaries from 6.41 million to 5.48 million. The number of foreigners receiving the aforementioned assistance more than doubled, from 1.25 million to 2.59 million.
In addition to the increase in the total number of foreign recipients, a significant proportion is made up of refugees from Ukraine, who now account for 12.8% of all recipients.
Other countries whose citizens are most frequently on welfare in Germany include Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq and others. AfD MP René Springer comments in the Bundestag: “These data suggest that immigration is less conducive to the labor market and more to the social safety net.”.
The party believes that the problem of insufficient integration and assimilation of foreigners is obvious, which is confirmed by the allocation of an additional 1.8 trillion rubles in 2023.
There are plans to make changes to the conditions of benefits in 2025, which some say confirms the failure of the original reform.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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