Overview

An overview about the conditions for refugees and non-EU-migrants in Germany:

Usually refugees or non-EU migrants are able to obtain temporary or permanent residence in Germany only by applying for asylum or through marriage or family links. It’s still quite complicated – except for highly qualified experts and specialists – to get papers concluding a labour contract.

Germany in 2025 had still with 163.000 applications the highest number of asylum seekers in the EU - but the difference to France and Spain was shrinking and the number of applications dropped.

Since March 2022 Ukrainians who fled from the war got a residence permit right away without the need to apply for asylum and since the beginning of the war about 1 million people fled from Ukraine to Germany. Compared to this only a very small number of refugees from other countries came via reception- and resettlement-programs. In spring-time 2025 the government stopped all resettlement-programs.

In the last years we faced a lot of changes.

Asylum procedures were speeded up and interviews are often taken within the first few days. This means you have to get prepared already before you enter the procedure. The times until a decision differ a lot and many people wait for much longer then the announced 6 months until a decision on their asylum-application is made.

There is an ongoing dynamic of law-enforcements creating more difficulties, first of all to speed up deportations. Nevertheless thousands of deportations still fail – because people resist or hide and also because pilots refuse to transport people against their will.

Police controls at the borders mainly to Austria, Poland and Switzerland, but also France, Belgium, Denmark or the Netherlands and controls inside the country on trains, in train-stations and inner city areas are quite common. Nevertheless probably tens of thousands of undocumented migrants live and work, mainly with the support of their communities, in big cities.

Assistance is also given by a lot of medical help projects or other advice centres/services run by antiracist groups, NGOs or unions, and by self-organised groups of migrants. Most of these projects are open for documented as well as for undocumented migrants. You can find a list of contacts here.

Everyone without residence permit, who is apprehended by the police has the right to apply for asylum. Usually s/he should not be arrested or detained for a longer time. Only exception are the areas close to the border, where sometimes people are sent back to the country where they entered from (for example Austria) right away. Asylum applications have to be directed to reception centers. Usually the police will give you the address, where to find the next reception centre, when you tell them you want to apply for asylum.

There is no guarantee that you can remain in the place/city of the asylum application as the allocation of accommodation is dependent on a Germany-wide distribution system.

Actually some people have to stay for months in the first reception centers, often in very difficult situations, in places where daily (Dublin-)deportation-attempts happen, before being finally transferred to another camp or accommodation.

Most asylum seekers won’t have to live in the first reception camps, but will be sent to the different districts already during the asylum procedure - where they are also obliged to stay in the accommodation they are signed in for, often in isolated places.

If you have given your fingerprints in another EU-country, before you came to Germany, you might get threatened to be deported back. This is based on the so-called Dublin-regulation.
In some areas special first reception centres are already built, where especially people with Dublin-cases or with protection status from other EU-countries are held under very restricted rules.
Nevertheless there are many ways to avoid a deportation under Dublin. It is very important to inform yourself in advance and to be prepared. Useful information on how to stop a Dublin-deportation can be found here.

The duration of an asylum procedure is incalculable. For some groups of refugees (coming from war zones or dictatorships) the chance to get refugee recognition, subsidiary protection or at least national subsidiary protection (Abschiebeverbot) is not too bad. But of course it depends on the individual case and the preparation! The first asylum interview is crucial for the whole procedure, and should be prepared very well. Some useful guides for the asylum procedure you may find here. Better to prepare the interview before applying for asylum, because the interrogation can sometimes already happen within the first days.

A lawyer to appeal a negative decision in the asylum procedure has to be paid by the asylum seeker him- or herself.
Refugees and migrants, whose asylum application got rejected, but for one reason or another, cannot be deported, will get the very precarious status of toleration (Duldung). No legalisation of undocumented migrants has ever taken place in Germany, but since January 2022 a new legislation on right to stay (Bleiberechtsregelung) came into practice that allows people to get a residence permit out of the status of toleration (Duldung), when they fulfil certain criteria. For this reason, in case you come from a country of origin where you probably won’t get a status via the asylum procedure, it is important to get rooted as soon as possible, to learn language and to start to work, or even better “Ausbildung” (apprenticeship) even if the conditions are difficult. You can find more about the different ways to get a legal status besides the asylum procedure and the new residence law here.

The detention and deportation system is „well“ organised in Germany, the bureaucracy puts a lot of energy into trying to kick refugees and migrants out of the country, not avoiding any costs, for example by utilising charter deportation flights. Never trust the foreigners’ offices (Ausländerbehörde), better to be escorted by friends or supporters, if the status is not safe!

To deal with all the mentioned precarious situations and to counter the risks of deportation and exclusion we see it as most important to build „your support team“: with friends in your community or neighbourhood and with good counsellors/lawyers. Our experience again and again: Solidarity will win.