Unemployed refugees and their family members cost the German state over €6 billion ($7 billion) annually, according to data obtained from the German Ministry of Labor
The data emerged from the Ministry of Labor in response to an information request from Harald Weyel, the Bundestag representative of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and made available to Junge Freiheit.
Weyel originally asked the federal government what the average monthly costs for the accommodation, care and support of an asylum seeker are. According to the Ministry of Labor, however, this cannot be answered using the data from the regular asylum seeker statistics alone.
More precise information could only be given here in relation to the basic social security statistics for job seekers.
In May 2020, for example, there were around 397,000 beneficiary groups (mostly families) “with at least one employable beneficiary with a residence status in the context of refugee migration”, according to the Ministry of Labor’s response. “The average monthly payment entitlement of these beneficiary groups was €1,389 and includes the entitlements for all members of these benefit communities.”
