Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has released fresh micro-census figures that put hard numbers behind what many HR managers already feel on the shopfloor: without foreign talent, large parts of the German economy would grind to a halt. According to the dataset, 27 % of all employees working in Germany in 2025 had a so-called “Einwanderungsgeschichte”, meaning they or a parent immigrated to the country after 1950. In several acute shortage occupations the share is dramatically higher—56 % among chefs, 55 % in food processing, 47 % among bus and tram drivers and 33 % in nursing. The numbers are politically sensitive because they land while the coalition government is rolling out the second phase of the Skilled Immigration Act reform. Business associations have seized on the data to argue for faster consular visa appointments and broader use of the new ‘opportunity card’ that gives non-EU professionals six months to job-hunt in Germany. Regional employer federations in Bavaria and North-Rhine Westphalia called for “one-stop digital filing” so that missing documents do not force applicants to start again from scratch. For mobility managers the findings provide rare, official evidence to convince headquarters that Germany remains a high-demand visa destination. Companies that rely on local hires for canteen kitchens, facility cleaning or in-house logistics may discover that those roles are statistically more likely to be filled by third-country nationals—and therefore exposed to any future tightening of work-authorisation rules. In practical terms, the Destatis release also hints at potential wage-pressure: in many of the shortage roles median tenure is less than three years, suggesting a highly mobile workforce that may jump ship if relocation support and onboarding are not handled professionally. Mobility teams are therefore advised to budget extra for retention incentives and German-language training in 2027 planning cycles. Finally, the figures could influence compliance audits. Audit firms told Global Mobility News that they expect labour inspectors to pay closer attention to whether companies properly recognise foreign qualifications in sectors such as long-term care and logistics, precisely because the government now has hard data proving how dependent those sectors are on migrants.
Source: Tagesschau/Destatis
