“We can do it.” One sentence that became a worldwide symbol for Germany’s welcoming stance toward refugees. When then-Chancellor of the center-right spoke these words in the European summer of 2015, hundreds of thousands of people were on their way to Germany. Many came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
They were received with a wave of solidarity and willingness to help. But 10 years later the mood in Germany has changed: skepticism and rejection prevail. Immigration has become an emotionally loaded topic.
A data-based review in 10 questions and answers offers a glimpse of whether integration has been successful and how this immigration has changed Germany.
1. How many people came to Germany seeking refuge?
In the years 2015 and 2016 combined, 1.2 million people came to Germany and applied for asylum. In the following years the number of asylum seekers significantly reduced.
No other country in the (EU) has taken in as many people seeking refuge.
However, an application for asylum does not automatically mean that every person was recognized as a refugee and received permission to remain in the country. On average, in the past 10 years, Germany approved more than half (56%) of asylum applications at the first instance and with that, 1.5 million people were granted a right to remain in the country.
In comparison with other European countries, Germany’s approval rate was higher than the EU average.
Germany is one of the few countries worldwide whose laws enshrine a legally enforceable right to asylum for politically persecuted people.
Along with politically persecuted people, people who are considered refugees according to the Geneva Convention or people who are entitled to a “subsidiary protection” status, for example because there is war in their home country, are allowed to remain. Altogether, about 3.5 million people seeking protection live in Germany today.
2. Where do the people who have sought asylum in Germany come from?
In the years 2015 and 2016 most people who sought asylum in Germany came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq; countries which for years had been shaped by war and conflicts.
Half of all Syrians living in Germany today came between 2014 and 2016 because of the civil war there. About a fifth have since become German citizens and one in 10 were born here.
Since the full-scale in 2022, many people from there also fled to Germany. Now, about 1.3 million people seeking refuge in Germany come from Ukraine.
3. Men, women, children: who has sought protection in Germany?
Of the 1.2 million people who sought protection in Germany in 2015 and 2016, about half of them (564,400) were between the ages of 18 and 34 and of them, three-quarters were male.
If a person is recognized as needing protection and therefore a refugee, this right to protection also applies to their spouse and minor children. So, if approved, they can then travel to Germany and have the right to stay under the family reunification program.
Between 2015 and mid-2017, 230,000 such requests for family reunification were granted, the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) reports. However, for refugees with limited protection status, family reunification was suspended for two years in July 2025.
4. How well are the refugees integrated today?
One of the most important gauges of successful integration is involvement in the labor market.
A look at the numbers reveals: the trend is positive. At the end of May 2025, the unemployment rate was the lowest and the employment rate the highest since January 2015 for people from the eight most common countries of asylum seekers’ origin. (German authorities list these as: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea and Nigeria)
The average gross monthly income as of May 2025 for a person who fled to Germany in 2015 was €1,600 ($1,875) for full-time employed workers and €800 for all refugees in total, no matter what type of work they were doing. In comparison, the average gross monthly income from full-time employed people in Germany was €3,771 the same year.
5. How well have refugees learned the German language?
Another indicator the success or otherwise of integration is the knowledge of the German language. This is also because adequate German is essential for many jobs.
There are significant gender differences in learning the new language. According to a survey of refugees in 2020, 34% of the women had a solid knowledge of German (B1 certificate level). Among the men, it was 54%. That is also further reflected in the labor market numbers: Although they are often also well qualified, women find a job less often.
6. How many refugees from that time have become German citizens?
Since 2016, about 414,000 people from the 8 most common countries of origin have become German citizens. Of them, 244,000 are from Syria.
“Many people who fled their countries in 2015 are now becoming citizens. Some of the Syrians are considering whether to return to Syria because the Assad regime has been toppled, although they are perhaps already citizens here. Often they decide to remain because they have opened a business here, because they are settled here, because their children are at school here,” says immigration researcher Hannes Schammann of the University of Hildesheim.
7. What has it cost Germany to take in so many refugees?
Estimates of the cost to Germany of taking in refugees vary widely — as shown by the Migration Media Service. Depending on the calculation method used, the costs range from €5800 billion ($6789 billion) — or annual savings in the future of €95 billion.
The fact is, when a person seeking protection arrives in Germany, the government first faces costs before the country can potentially benefit from their economic potential.
This is how the “refugee-related expenses” of the German federal budget in the year 2023 came to be about €30 billion. Social benefits were the biggest component of this.
The number of foreigners who received basic income benefits rose significantly in 2022. That was the year many people fled Ukraine for Germany, and because of a special law, were entitled to the basic provision immediately. The payment is a government-funded social benefit for people seeking work or unable to cover their own living costs.
In the same timeframe, the number of Germans who received the benefit reduced slightly. Despite this, German citizens continue to be the largest group of people (52%) who receive basic income benefits.
8. How has the mood in Germany changed?
While most Germans were quite open to taking in refugees in January 2015, a survey of eligible voters 10 years later reported that 68% thought that Germany should take in fewer refugees.
It was in 2023 that people who shared this view were recorded as the majority in a survey. In that same year, a study conducted on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung found that immigration had become viewed negatively.
According to that report, 78% of people cited additional burdens on the welfare state and 73% cited conflicts between native Germans and immigrants. Only 63% of those surveyed agreed that immigration was important for the economy.
9. Is there a heightened risk of criminality among refugees and asylum seekers?
A handful of high-profile cases of violent criminal activity by people who had fled to Germany have contributed to the change in mood and stoked more generalized fears of terrorism. These fears allowed the far-right, anti-immigration party (AfD) to build political capital. Although German domestic intelligence has classified parts of the party as confirmed right-wing extremist, the AfD as a whole has meanwhile become the second-largest party in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament.
Police criminal statistics show that non-Germans are suspects in about 35% of all cases, although they account for only about 15% of the total population. According to experts, however, the statistics do not definitively show whether refugees, per se, commit crimes more often than Germans.
Gina Wollinger, criminologist at the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in (HSPV NRW), who is based in Cologne, pointed out that non-Germans, or people perceived as foreign, are reported to authorities much more regularly. “People who have fled to Germany are also not a representative cross-section of their communities of origin – they are mostly young men. And we know that both characteristics, young and male, are very strongly associated with violent crime,” Wollinger told DW.
10. How has immigration policy changed since 2015?
Germany’s immigration policies have significantly changed since Merkel’s “We can do it” statement on August 31, 2015. This trend is also reflected in the mood of the refugees: 57% felt very welcome in the year of their arrival, but more than seven years later only 28% still had this feeling, according to a report from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the research institute of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency (BA).
The political change began quickly, said Daniel Thym, migration researcher at the University of Konstanz. “As early as the [European] fall of 2015, laws were being significantly tightened, asylum seeker benefits were being reduced, new safe countries of origin were declared, family reunification was being restricted.”
Since the new coalition government — of the conservative Union (the plus Bavaria’s ) and the — took over in 2025, lawmakers have focused mainly on the limiting and repatriation of migrants, with tightened border controls and more deportations.
Reflecting on Merkel’s call from 2015, current Chancellor , also of the CDU, said Germany had “obviously not succeeded”.
Immigration researcher Hannes Schammann has a different view: “I believe that we have largely achieved the task we had in 2015.” Now, he says, it is about finding politically clever solutions and “not constantly looking back to 2015, instead looking forward and asking: how do we handle this?”
This article was originally written in German. Data and code behind this analysis can be found in this Github repository.
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The post Refugees, asylum, integration: What is the current situation in Germany? appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
