After Germany quietly decided to restrict access to integration courses, an expert explains who will be affected and why that’s a problem for the whole country, not just immigrants and refugees.
Germany recently confirmed plans to dramatically restrict access to state‑funded integration courses, which had been a cornerstone of the country’s integration system since 2005.
The decision was taken by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which stopped approving new admissions to voluntary integration courses from late November 2025 without any public announcement.
The decision effectively blocks more than half of people who previously had access to integration courses from enrolling.
The Local spoke with Dr. Angela Rustemeyer, Head of Association Communications at Germany’s Adult Education Association (DVV), which represents organisations responsible for running nearly half of integration courses in Germany, about the decision.
A system at sudden risk of collapse
Last year, voluntary participants accounted for more than half of integration course participants. Without them, integration course providers have warned that there aren’t enough remaining participants to fill classes in many regions.
This means that courses are being cancelled, start dates pushed back and waiting times increased – even for people legally required to attend.
The decision “is forcing providers to terminate teaching contracts at short notice,” Rustemeyer told The Local.
She called the decision “short‑sighted”, adding that “rented rooms remain unused but still have to be paid for. The providers are suffering financial losses and losing irreplaceable specialist staff.
“Due to the admission freeze, this successful language support system must now be rapidly phased out,” she said.
Who is being excluded?
Integration courses teach some German language skills along with an introduction to everyday life, work, laws and values in Germany. They conclude with recognised exams that can help participants access employment, secure residence permits and speed up naturalisation.
The DVV estimates that around 55 percent of integration course participants attended voluntarily – and therefore belong to groups that will now be excluded according to the new rules.
Integration courses in Germany are designed to ensure that immigrants have the opportunity to integrate successfully. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Getty Images/Westend61 | Westend61
They include people from Ukraine, EU citizens, asylum seekers and those who were granted a suspension of deportation.
In the first half of 2025, around 178,000 people started an integration course in Germany, according to BAMF.
Of these, around 30 percent were Ukrainian nationals, making them by far the single largest group. That equates to more than 50,000 people who would now be excluded from taking an integration course.
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EU citizens made up a further 8.1 percent of participants, with 14,524 people from EU countries starting an integration course in the first half of 2025. As EU citizens have always attended on a voluntary basis, this group now loses access almost entirely.
After Ukrainian, the next three most affected nationalities in the first half of 2025 were Syrian, Afghani and Turkish, which together accounted for nearly one in three participants.
Undermining integration successes
Under the new rules, integration courses are reserved for people who are obliged to attend. Yet one of the reasons the system had worked well is that large numbers of participants – motivated to learn the language and integrate as quickly as possible – has joined voluntarily
The outcomes appear to support that view. According to BAMF data, over 90 percent of exam participants in general integration courses achieved either B1 or A2 German in the first half of 2025.
Rustemeyer linked this directly to Germany’s comparatively strong labour‑market integration of migrants. She cited an OECD study which found that employment rates among immigrants aged 15 to 64 are higher in Germany than in most comparable EU countries.
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“The reduction in integration courses will have a negative impact,” she warned. “In view of the predicted shortage of over seven million skilled workers by 2035, Germany cannot afford to exclude immigrant skilled workers from language support.”
She added, “With the dismantling of language integration, the federal government is renouncing its commitment to Germany as a country of immigration. If this is lost, parallel societies will grow.”
This might end up costing the state more in the long term. As an example, Rustemeyer noted that incoming people from Ukraine, unable to learn German in an integration course, are made less likely to gain skilled work, and therefore more likely to remain dependent on benefits.
The situation is similar for asylum seekers who often face wait times of over a year to see their asylum applications evaluated. In the meantime, voluntary participation in an integration course can leads to faster integration into the labour market and society.
“It allows the waiting period to be used productively,” Rustemeyer explained. “On the other hand, exclusion from the integration course condemns people to frustrating inactivity.”
The Local contacted German Interior Ministry (BMI) to ask if alternative language or integration support would be offered to those now excluded from integration courses.
The ministry said it was “returning the integration courses to their original purpose” and “setting priorities”. It referred to an FAQ page about the decision, and gave no indication of available or planned alternatives for those affected.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
