Half of Migrants Refuse to Work in Germany’s Community Service Program
7th July 2025
After the first few months, one of Germany’s pilot projects—requiring unemployed asylum seekers to enroll in community service or have their social benefits cut—has produced abysmal results, as every other migrant with work obligations refused to show up, despite the incentives and threat of sanctions.
The data was reported by Udo Recktenwald, the CDU district administrator of St. Wendel in Saarland, which joined three other CDU-led districts this spring in expanding a program launched last year, hoping to serve as a successful integration model that could be later implemented across the country.
The idea is that asylum seekers who are issued compulsory community service hours would be more compelled to find actual jobs, accelerating their integration into German society. Regularly showing up for the service (such as maintaining public parks) is also incentivized through preferential access to German language classes, while disregarding the order carries the risk of having their social benefits cut or eliminated.