The Freedom Party of Austria in Lower Austria would withdraw family allowance from migrant families whose children do not learn German before starting school.

Migrant families with children who go to school without German language skills will risk losing access to family benefits under new plans proposed by the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) in Lower Austria. The financial sanctions could serve as an incentive to improve the German language skills of migrant children, many of whom currently do not speak any German at home and therefore enter school unable to communicate effectively.

“If children don’t know a single word of German, there is no money. It’s that simple,”

said Edith Muhlberghuber, the FPO’s family spokeswoman in Lower Austria

„This imported language problem must end. The financial sanctions could serve as a language boost, and if not, then the state will save itself a lot of money,”

she said.

Muhlberghuber warned that Lower Austria must avoid the issues faced by neighboring Vienna. Remix News reported in October on new statistics which revealed

more than three-quarters of students in the Austrian capital’s middle schools speak no German at home.

According to Statistics Austria’s STATcube, only 8,479 of Vienna’s 26,816 middle school students use German as their primary language, while 76 percent predominantly speak other languages.

In specific districts, the numbers soar above 90 percent, with areas like Margareten (95.4 percent), Hernals (92.2 per cent), and Alsergrund (91.2 per cent) reporting the highest proportions of students speaking languages other than German at home. “In Vienna, as everyone unfortunately knows, the situation is quite dramatic. We should also take a close look at the situation in the cities of Lower Austria,” said Muhlberghuber. She added:

„The fact that children come to first grade without a word of German is unacceptable. If all cash benefits are linked to language skills, the willingness to learn will increase.”

The FPO proposal aligns with recommendations made by Natascha Taslimi, chairwoman of the Austrian Elementary Education Network, who suggested integrating German language support into Austria’s parent-child pass. The pass includes mandatory check-ups, which are prerequisites for receiving family allowances. Taslimi explained that many parents assume that kindergartens and schools will automatically teach their children German, but under current conditions, this expectation is unrealistic and puts an unfair burden on educators, which can impact the learning of other children. „An elementary school teacher who is mostly alone with 25 children in the class cannot adequately support children in their multilingualism,” she said, stating that the effectiveness of kindergartens in language development depends on staff qualifications and working conditions.