As expected: the German government is stifling integration.

While the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) loudly proclaims that Germany needs every helping hand and that refugees and skilled workers should be integrated into employment more quickly, behind the scenes, the plug is being quietly but firmly pulled. It's a paradoxical situation: Integration through work is demanded, yet at the same time, people are deprived of the most important tool for achieving it – language. The federal government is gradually reducing the availability of integration courses , thus continuing its critical stance towards integration and migration .

As a law firm specializing in visa law, we are observing this development with a mixture of professional composure and political concern. It concerns a recent circular from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) that is causing dismay in the education sector. No new admissions to integration courses will be granted until further notice. This affects asylum seekers, those with tolerated stay status, people from Ukraine, and even EU citizens. The reason given? A lack of funding. What at first glance appears to be a purely administrative matter, on closer inspection reveals itself to be a concrete political shift that shakes the very foundations of the existing integration logic.

The legal reality: Why professionals can sleep soundly

In our daily consulting practice for companies and foreign specialists, the question naturally arises as to what impact this "drying up" of courses has on residence permits. As a law firm, we can offer some reassurance here . While Section 8 Paragraph 3 of the German Residence Act (AufenthG) stipulates that the extension of a residence permit should be contingent on the foreigner having fulfilled their obligation to properly participate in an integration course, this sounds like a significant hurdle in theory. However, in legal practice for skilled workers, this regulation has so far played a negligible role .

We almost never encounter situations where the extension of a residence permit for employment is seriously hindered by a lack of integration course participation. Even if an immigration authority were to raise this issue, we as lawyers have numerous arguments at our disposal to circumvent this obstacle. Often, the formal obligation imposed by the authority is lacking , or there are professional reasons that make participation unreasonable. For the typical IT specialist from India or the engineer from Brazil, the state-run integration course is usually not an effective tool anyway, as this target group often already possesses language skills or speaks English in their daily work. Therefore, the legal risk of deportation or non-renewal solely due to a missing BAMF course is extremely low for highly qualified migrant workers.

The job turbo is a pipe dream without a linguistic foundation

Even if the individual risk for skilled workers may be low, the overall economic damage caused by current policies is immense . The "job turbo" is based on a logical chain: a fast language course leads to rapid entry into the labor market, followed by on-the-job training. If the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) now effectively halts the approvals under Section 44 Paragraph 4 of the Residence Act, the first link in this chain breaks. Integration is thus gradually privatized into a private service. Those who can afford it pay for their own language course; those who cannot are left out.

For companies , this means a significant additional burden . If the government withdraws from language support, the costs of training land directly on the desks of HR departments. We're not just talking about the costs of private language schools. It's about considerably higher onboarding costs, more misunderstandings in day-to-day operations, and ultimately a higher dropout rate in the first few months of employment. If the federal government treats integration as a "soft issue," it fails to recognize that language is a crucial factor for business location. Integration is about productivity and risk management. Without government-funded basic language courses, securing skilled workers becomes an expensive experiment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A worrying trend: migration policy based on available funds

What particularly worries us as a law firm is the political message behind this "budgetary logic." That billions are flowing into security and defense is understandable given the current global situation. However, that funding for the social foundation of our immigrant society is being cut at the same time is short-sighted. When people from Ukraine or EU citizens are no longer admitted to courses despite available spaces, it's a slap in the face to everyone who has declared their willingness to integrate. It creates a sense of hopelessness that achieves precisely the opposite of what politicians claim to want: to make people independent of state benefits as quickly as possible. But those who aren't even allowed to learn the basics of the local language are systematically kept in a state of dependency . From a visa law perspective, we are observing a dangerous discrepancy between the goal of attracting skilled workers and the bureaucratic reality that continually places new obstacles in the way of those wishing to immigrate.

Conclusion: Pragmatism beats bureaucracy, but the direction is wrong.

In summary, the current reduction in integration courses poses little immediate threat to the legal validity of our clients' residence permits – particularly those of skilled workers . The legal hurdles of Section 8 of the Residence Act are generally manageable in practice, as the authorities themselves understand that a lack of course places cannot be attributed to individuals. Nevertheless, a bitter aftertaste remains.

The German government is sending a devastating signal to potential immigrants and the domestic economy. Integration is not a "nice-to-have," but a prerequisite for social cohesion and economic success . Those who skimp on language courses will later pay twice as much for the consequences of a lack of participation. We will closely monitor further developments and continue to guide our clients through the dense fog of German bureaucracy with pragmatic legal solutions.