The number of underage foreigners in Germany has soared and the number of these children receiving state benefits has hit a record high, according to data released after a request from Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP René Springer.
According to government data, there are now 888,218 underage foreigners, while in 2010, that number was just 303,962, which means this population has nearly tripled in 13 years. It has also accelerated rapidly since 2015, when then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) opened the borders to Syrian migrants, resulting in a wave of over 1 million people arriving in the country.
At that time, the number of underage foreigners was just 376,040 — and the citizen’s allowance, which is what welfare is called in Germany, was still called Hartz IV. From that point, the number of underage foreigners has increased another 136 percent.
However, the number is actually much higher than at first glance, which is because migrants who already received German citizenship or those who have dual citizenship are not counted in these figures. As a result, the number of underage persons with a foreign background may be far higher, possibly well over 1 million.
Overall, there are 2.2 million minors without German citizenship living in Germany as of the end of 2022, and 40.2 percent of them receive social assistance. As Remix News has previously reported, the German school system is increasingly featuring foreign-born children, with 38 percent of all German school-age children having a migrant background.