Immediately after the AfD’s “Migration U-turn” motion, the Bundestag convened an evidence session on the fiscal and labour-market impact of immigration. The debate, held on 9 October 2026, was triggered by an opposition enquiry that asks whether net migration is a financial burden or a growth engine for the federal budget. Officials from the Finance and Labour ministries presented new modelling suggesting that working-age immigrants contributed a net €12 billion to tax revenues in 2025 while helping to stabilise the pension system. By contrast, accommodation and integration costs for recent asylum applicants totalled €4.3 billion. Industry representatives from the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) warned that without at least 400,000 additional foreign workers a year, manufacturing output would contract by 1 % annually. Critics, including several CSU MPs, argued that the figures understate pressure on municipalities and schools. They called for stricter enforcement of the 18-month employment ban for asylum seekers and for linking residence permits to German-language proficiency. Migration researchers from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) countered that delays in work-permit processing, not migrants’ qualifications, are the bigger drag on public finances. While no vote was taken, the hearing signals that Germany’s “traffic-light” coalition plans to defend its phased Skilled Immigration Act against expected opposition amendments later this month. Corporate mobility managers should monitor the outcome, as any tightening of labour-migration quotas or language rules could lengthen on-boarding timelines for non-EU hires.
Source: Deutscher Bundestag
