BERLIN, Oct 8 (The African Portal) – The ongoing political focus on migration in Germany could have spillover effects. Decades of progress in making the country more inclusive of Black people could be rolled back, Tahir Della, of the rights organization Initiative of Black People in Germany, told DW.
“We already notice that, especially when there are debates related to migration, the presence of Black people and people of African descent in Germany is called into question,” Della said.
Germany, the European Union’s most-populous country, has had the bloc’s biggest reported increase in anti-Black racial discrimination, according to the 2023 “Being Black in the EU” report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Since that EUFRA report, Germany has had a change in government following the 2025 federal elections, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, known for its anti-immigration stance, had the second-largest share of the vote.
The economy of Europe’s industrial powerhouse has been struggling since the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, Germany has been the only G7 economy that failed to grow for the last two years. It is also on track for a third year of economic stagnation in 2025. These factors combined could have implications for Black people.
Is Germany failing sub-Saharan African immigrants?
Economically, immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who accounted for most of the Black people included in the EUFRA survey, are worse off than other groups in Germany. Their unemployment rate is just over 16%, which is more than triple that of German citizens, and two percentage points higher than the rate for immigrants overall. On average, sub-Saharan African immigrants also earn less.
One of those Black immigrants is Benin-born Arnaud de Souza. The West African, who also has Afro-Brazilian roots, has worked as a nursing assistant at a Berlin hospital for 10 years. De Souza makes €3,100 ($3,655) a month before taxes. That figure is slightly lower than €3,363, the average monthly gross income for a nursing assistant like him. Immigrants from sub-Saharan African countries have by far the biggest income gap with German citizens born to German parents, according to a study published in Nature last July.
De Souza told DW that some patients refused to be cared for by Black health care workers. Racial discrimination is widespread in the healthcare sector, according to a 2024 report commissioned by the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Office.
For de Souza, that means living and working in Berlin is more attractive than moving to neighboring Brandenburg — despite the high cost of living in the German capital.
“The team you work with is very important in health care,” de Souza said, noting that the situation is very different for many African health care workers he knows, especially those working outside Berlin, for example, in Brandenburg.
The fact that de Souza prefers to live in a more expensive city, in part because of fears of racial discrimination elsewhere, also means he has less to spend because a big chunk of his salary goes to rent.
The authors behind the research on the immigrant-native pay gap attribute the difference in pay to “sorting,” which segregates immigrants into lower-paid work. For instance, in Germany, Africans are overrepresented in badly paid jobs, such as in the cleaning industry. And while that could be the case in other Western countries, Germany was also one of the worst performers when it came to the extent of the pay gap for sub-Saharan African immigrants.
The difference in earnings experienced by immigrants could also be linked to the lack of recognition of foreign academic credentials and experience. Immigration policies, too, can play a role in determining who makes it into the country for first-generation immigrants and whether those people have a good chance on the job market, according to researchers.
Hiring discrimination in Germany
Though there’s evidence that the pay gap narrows significantly for subsequent generations, including people with sub-Saharan African ancestry, there is still the issue of employment discrimination in Germany. Between 2023 and early 2025, applicants with African and Arab-sounding names were the least likely to get a call back for vocational training positions, according to a recent study by the University of Siegen. And that’s despite the ongoing lack of apprentices at many German companies.
Public discourse can also intensify hiring discrimination, said sociologist Malte Reichelt, who was involved in the research on the immigrant-native pay gap as part of his work for Germany’s Institute for Employment Research. “Certain racial or interracial categories become more visible in the public debate and thus in the hiring processes,” he added.
And it’s not just Germany. Black people across the EU were most likely to report facing discrimination when looking for work, with Germany once again the second worst country.
Though reported racial discrimination can provide some insights, it still does not fully reflect what people experience
Luxembourg: A role model in tackling racism?
After ranking poorly in the 2017 “Being Black in the EU report,” Luxembourg, a small-but-wealthy nation where more than 1 in 10 residents were born outside of the European Union, initiated its own survey on public perceptions of racial and ethnic discrimination. The results of that study were published in 2022. The country is now working on a national action plan against racism.
“The plan aims to implement concrete initiatives to combat all forms of racism and discrimination through research, training and awareness-raising projects,” said the Belgian economist Frederic Docquier, one of the co-authors of the report for the government of Luxembourg. “We need to establish that discrimination is there and not only perceived,” he added.
“Groups that face discrimination will pay lower taxes compared to their potential,” said Docquier, who is also the deputy director of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). “And sometimes, if they cannot have a job, they will just be on unemployment benefits, which costs the society.” Racial discrimination has “fiscal implications,” he said.
Tahir Della, from the Initiative of Black People in Germany, would like to see more comprehensive studies and data collection that reflect not only the current situation, but also what happens before and after, to people who are more likely to experience racial discrimination.
“We need a picture of what it means to grow up here or come here, and the experiences people have,” he said.
Credit: DW
