The German federal government is expected to allocate over one billion euros for integration courses in the current year, according to a response to a Left Party inquiry. The government had initially planned to allocate around 760 million euros, but has now agreed to increase the budget by over 300 million euros.
The Finance Ministry has given its approval for the over-budget allocation, requested by the Interior Ministry. As a result, a total of 1.066 billion euros is now available for the integration courses. The government has assured that the further financing of the courses in the current year is now “secured”.
In 2024, the government had already spent over one billion euros on integration courses and a reduction in funding is not planned, according to the response. Between January and April of this year, 122,800 people began an integration course, with a total of over 363,000 participants in 2024. The courses have seen the highest participation from Ukrainian, Syrian and Afghan nationals.
Clara Bünger, the Left Party’s spokesperson for internal and refugee policy in the German Bundestag, commented, “It’s good that the federal government has now increased the funds for the integration courses and ensured that they can take place throughout the year 2025. However, the uncertainty could have been avoided if sufficient funds for these courses had been planned from the start.