Immigrants to Germany and the European Union are more highly educated than ever before, according to a new study
Immigrants to Germany and the European Union are more highly educated than ever before, according to a new study
Germany: Immigrant education levels reach new high – DW – 06/23/2025
The Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) [opens pdf] reports that 32.1% of migrants from non-EU countries had a university degree or equivalent qualification in 2024 — up from 30.9% in 2023.
The study, released Monday, describes this as a "record level" and part of a continued upward trend over the past decade.
In Germany, the share of highly educated non-EU migrants rose from 29.4% to 31.1% over the same period. For migrants from other EU member states, the percentage holding a tertiary qualification climbed from 33.8% to 35.2% EU-wide, and from 28.6% to 30.1% in Germany.
"This continuous rise in education levels highlights the potential migrants bring to EU labor markets," said Tommaso Frattini, co-director of the Center for Research and Analysis of Migration at RFBerlin and professor at the University of Milan. He said that if migrants' skills are fully utilized, "they can be a key driver of economic growth across the EU."
More and more immigrants are coming to Germany to work. In 2024, the proportion of foreign employees was just over 16%. It has more than doubled since 2010. Employment in medical professions is disproportionately high. More than one in six doctors is a foreign citizen.
So it was an issue of concern last week when the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) at the Federal Employment Agency said it had found that other countries are more attractive to economically successful foreigners and one in four say they are considering leaving Germany. Many of them are quoting discrimination as a reason.
As always it’s the few idiots that ruin it for the well behaved, well meaning and progressive immigrants. As an immigrant I am very ashamed of some people from my country of origin for the things they do once they come to Western Europe.
I pay tax and I don’t break the law. Even if I’d the most conservative dipshit in the whole country they could be happy to have me because I pay fucktons of tax, I finance the retirement plan of some old racists and I got hired because there weren’t any qualified locals.
It’s a universal trait of humans to be capable of being an idiot. Every culture & every country has them. What does that have to do with me? Treating me like shit because someone else with my ethnicity did something wrong is the definition of racism.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. In an ideal world, things would function like this and we would judge every person in an individual basis. One issue is that migrants from different countries sometimes have vastly different socio-economic backgrounds and norms that are in general not compatible with common the average views and ways of life in the host countries.
That is neither good nor bad and is in no way any fault of the migrants themselves. Like in every group there are people with views more aligned to a more moral and liberal inclusive point of view and those who are not. What I argue is that we as humans have evolved traits to quickly judge and assess others based on characteristics and stereotypes as shortcuts (as described in Kahneman’s “Thinking fast and slow”). As a consequence, the actions of a few lead to a more widespread stereotype (which to be fair is based on facts) that is then applied to the general population belonging to the same ethnicity or minority. That is true in both negative and positive prejudice.
That was my whole argument. I abide by the law and pay taxes , have a higher education and I still am sometimes viewed in the same context as those from my nationality that steal, beg, destroy property, discriminate against people of other sexuality or beliefs or are behaving inappropriately in public. That is of course unfair and racist. My statement was that if there weren’t these people that do all of these there would be no basis for the kind of racism that exists against my ethnicity. Thank you for coming to my ted talk :)
Its not really those few migrants that are to blame, its the media they are more likely to cover crime committed by migrant and blow it out of proportions
Oh I’ve seen it first hand from begging to destruction of public property to starting fights, especially near train stations and - get this - stealing from a church.
No, rape is always bad, whether or not the media reports it.