- Chancellor Friedrich Merz has implemented sharply more restrictive migration policies while prioritizing pathways for specialized labor.
- Permanent border controls and technology-driven surveillance led to a 42% drop in irregular crossings during 2025.
- The Skilled Immigration Act was updated to fast-track visas for nurses and engineers to address labor shortages.
(GERMANY) Friedrich Merz has turned Germany’s migration policy sharply more restrictive while keeping the door open for skilled workers. His five-point migration plan now drives border checks, lower asylum benefits, faster deportations, and a de facto entry ban for undocumented arrivals, even as employers still get fast access to nurses, engineers, IT specialists, and other needed workers.
The shift began after the February 23, 2025 federal election, when the CDU/CSU won 30.8% of the vote. By April 2026, the new line had reshaped asylum processing, border enforcement, and family reunification. It has also triggered EU scrutiny and fresh political conflict inside Germany.
Border checks now define the system
Permanent border controls returned on March 15, 2025, across Germany’s 3,800-kilometer frontiers. That move ended reliance on temporary Schengen exemptions used during the COVID-19 era. Federal Police figures show irregular crossings fell 42% in 2025, from 285,000 to 165,000 incidents.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said 120,000 people were turned back at the border in the first year. Authorities credit extra patrols, drones, and AI surveillance. A €500 million border tech fund in the 2026 budget now pays for facial recognition tools and seismic sensors.
For migrants crossing without papers, the result is immediate risk. Undocumented travelers face pushbacks, while 70% of 2025 turnbacks involved Balkan or North African nationals. Short-stay visa applicants from high-risk regions also face pre-entry screening that adds four to six weeks.
The de facto entry ban for undocumented arrivals
The strongest shift came on January 1, 2026, when Germany introduced a de facto entry ban for undocumented arrivals. Asylum seekers from so-called safe third countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, and Tunisia, are now rejected at the border unless they can show exceptional hardship.
The policy mirrors Denmark’s restrictive model and helped cut asylum applications by 35% year over year. Germany recorded 210,000 filings in 2025, down from 325,000 in 2024. Exemptions remain for unaccompanied minors and trafficking victims.
Critics argue the rule conflicts with the EU Reception Conditions Directive. Supporters say it stops irregular migration before claims enter the system. VisaVerge.com reports that this border-first model is now the clearest sign of Friedrich Merz’s approach: tight control at the frontier, faster sorting inside Germany, and a strong push to remove failed applicants.
Asylum processing has been tightened
Germany’s asylum system now moves faster and rejects more claims. Under the Common European Asylum System reforms adopted EU-wide on June 1, 2025, claims from safe countries enter fast-track procedures that cut processing time from six to 18 months to 90 days.
In 2025, approval rates fell to 42%, down from 52% in 2024. That meant 89,000 grants and 140,000 rejections. Border asylum applications have not been processed since February 2026 unless life-threatening persecution is proven.
Merz also invoked Article 72 TFEU to justify a national emergency response to migration pressure. That decision has drawn warnings from the Court of Justice of the European Union and triggered a European Commission infringement proceeding filed on December 15, 2025.
Family reunification has also tightened. Spouses and minors of asylum grantees now wait 18 months for visas, up from 12 months, with priority given to nuclear families only.
Deportations have reached their highest level since 2015
Germany removed 28,500 people in 2025, a 50% rise from 2024. Officials expect 35,000 deportations in 2026. New return hubs at Frankfurt and Berlin airports have made removals faster, while failed applicants now face removal within 90 days.
A bilateral deal with Poland, signed September 10, 2025, created a joint deportation center near the border. It had already handled 5,000 removals of rejected asylum seekers by March 2026. The center, operational since November 2025, processes 200 cases each week and has cut the domestic backlog by 20%.
Germany has also increased detention for absconders to 28 weeks. Private charter flights now serve more than 60 countries. Tunisia received 4,200 deportees in 2025 and Georgia received 2,800, helped by €10,000-per-flight incentives. Criminal deportees, who make up 15% of all removals, remain the top priority.
Benefits were cut to weaken the “pull factor”
Asylum seekers’ monthly cash allowance fell to €320 per adult on July 1, 2025, down from €410. The cut reduced benefits by 20%. Full welfare access remains limited until residency is granted, although integration courses continue to be fully funded.
In October 2025, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court upheld the cuts. Judges said the reduced payments stay within EU minimum standards. Merz argues the welfare system had acted as a pull factor for economic migration.
Public anger over crime helped the tougher line gain support. After the 2024 Aschaffenburg knife attack by a deportee-eligible Afghan and a Munich car ramming, CDU/CSU approval rose to 38% in March 2026 polls. Public support for the wider migration line stood at 62% in Infratest dimap surveys.
Skilled workers still get a fast lane
Germany is closing one door while opening another. The Skilled Immigration Act, or Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz (FEG), was updated on November 1, 2025 to keep labor migration flowing. Employers still face shortages that lawmakers see as impossible to ignore.
IW Köln forecasts a 2 million worker shortage by 2030, with 19.5 million retirements and only 12.5 million new entrants. Germany issued 180,000 skilled visas in 2025, up 25%. Officials say that filled 60% of nursing vacancies and 40% of tech roles.
Salary thresholds now stand at €43,759 for shortage occupations and €48,300 for other skilled jobs. The EU Blue Card threshold is €45,552, equal to 1.2 times the median wage. IT specialists without degrees can qualify through two years of experience. Vocational trainees now get 18-month job-seeker visas.
Family rules are also easier on this track. Spouses receive immediate work rights, and children under 18 are approved automatically. The Opportunity Card, launched on June 1, 2025, issued 50,000 cards in 2025 and is set for a 100,000 quota in 2026.
Applicants can check the official Make it in Germany portal for current skilled-migration rules, visa categories, and job-search pathways. Processing for many skilled-worker cases now takes four to eight weeks, with some STEM PhD fast tracks completed in two weeks.
EU pressure and domestic politics remain intense
Merz’s migration line is also a political gamble. In December 2025, he broke the firewall against AfD cooperation in a coalition vote, using their abstentions to pass migration bills. That move angered moderates and left CDU/CSU support at 35% in later polls.
The SPD, at 15.7%, and the Greens, at 13.6%, keep pressing for a more open “modern immigration society.” Business groups back the dual track but warn that legal fights with Brussels could scare off talent if the conflict widens.
The European Commission sued Germany on January 20, 2026 over border bans, saying they breach Schengen rules. A Karlsruhe challenge on deportations is also pending. Germany’s labor gap remains a central test: if skilled inflows slow, economists warn of a 2% GDP loss by 2030.
What the new rules mean in practice
Asylum seekers now face faster decisions, tighter border screening, and a higher rejection rate. Undocumented arrivals face immediate rejection at the frontier. Families wait longer for reunification. Rejected applicants must appeal from abroad, and success rates have dropped to 15%.
Skilled workers still have a clear route in, especially in nursing, engineering, technology, and vocational trades. Students also keep a path open, with post-graduate stays extended to 24 months and 45,000 transitions to work visas in 2025.
Merz’s five-point migration plan has already cut irregular arrivals and lifted deportations, while preserving labor migration for employers that depend on foreign workers. That mix now defines Germany’s immigration system, and the next stage will be shaped in Brussels, in the courts, and at the border.
