Hamburg’s welfare systems are bearing the brunt of migration: in the first half of 2025, 54 percent of expenditure on citizens’ income went to individuals without German citizenship – higher than the federal average of 47 percent – while 299 migrant families received more than €8,000 per month. The figures highlight not only the rising costs but also raise questions of integration.

Data from the German Federal Employment Agency and Hamburg authorities paint a clear picture: expenditures on citizen’s income, basic support, asylum seeker benefits and housing subsidies are steadily increasing, driven by international crises such as the war in Ukraine and ongoing ongoing migration.

In the city, among non-German beneficiaries, Ukrainians, Afghans and Syrians receive the most citizen’s income.

In 2024, citizen’s income in Hamburg cost €1.86 billion. Of this, €995 million – 53 percent – went to 93,817 foreign beneficiaries, representing a 50.6 percent increase compared with 2022.

German beneficiaries (92,738 people) received €868 million. In the first half of 2025, the share for foreigners rose to 54 percent: of €629 million, €340 million went to non-German recipients. The most common countries of origin were Ukraine (€83 million), Afghanistan (€65 million) and Syria (€39 million).

In 2024, nationwide, 47.4 percent of spending – €46.9 billion – went to non-German citizens. Hamburg’s share is higher, underscoring the city’s role as a migration hub. The Senate argues that many of the benefits are temporary and facilitate integration, while EU citizens have equal rights.

Critics, such as migration researcher Ruud Koopmans, have in the past pointed to a systemic problem:

“High benefits can create incentives without requiring sufficient contribution in return.”

Hamburg: View of the evening concourse of Hamburg Central Station towards the entrance to the Wandelhalle. Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa (Photo: MARKUS SCHOLZ / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP)

Extremely high payouts to large families

In 2024, 299 households received more than €8,000 per month under the citizen’s income scheme, including 86 households with six or more children and 85 households with five children. By 2025, the number had risen to 309.

In the case of asylum seeker benefits, 53 households received more than €8,000 in 2024, mostly large families in state-run accommodation.

These amounts include rent payments and regulated sums that are not freely disposable. Nevertheless, such figures fuel debate over whether the system is being abused.

NIUS recently reported on the Afghan B. family, which receives more than €7,700 per month and flaunts its comfortable lifestyle on social media. In addition, twelve more Hamburg citizen’s income decisions were published, showing that non-German families are receiving vast sums from abroad.

Eine afghanische Familie kassiert in Hamburg fast 7.000 Euro Bürgergeld – obwohl das Familienoberhaupt in einem Supermarkt angestellt ist und kein Deutsch spricht, wie NIUS-Recherchen vor Ort zeigen. Besonders pikant: 5.100 Euro der Summe fließen an den städtischen Vermieter… pic.twitter.com/ehZ2ZofFdX

— NIUS (@niusde_) August 1, 2025

In Hamburg, hundreds of families receive high welfare support

Other areas confirm the broader picture of migration’s link to the welfare state: in 2024, €162 million (30 percent) of basic support (SGB XII) went to foreigners, while asylum seeker benefits totalled nearly €127 million. Housing subsidies rose to €108 million, without breakdown by nationality. Overall, welfare costs place a massive burden on Hamburg; for Afghans alone, more than €955 million has been paid out since 2020.

AfD politician Dirk Nockemann described Hamburg as the “world’s welfare office” in connection with citizen’s income.

In their statement to NIUS, the politicians of the AfD party emphasized:

“The explosion of welfare spending on foreign nationals clearly illustrates this insane asylum policy. Welfare has completely failed and must be abolished. We urgently need reforms: anyone receiving long-term support must contribute in return. We need a system again that rewards performance rather than punishes it,” Thomas Reich, the party’s social policy spokesman said.

Parliamentary group leader Dirk Nockemann added:

“The red-green coalition is turning Hamburg, this gateway to the world, into the social welfare hub of the globe. The astronomical sums spent on welfare are consuming billions – in Hamburg alone. The misguided asylum and refugee policy, combined with dysfunctional citizen’s income, is collapsing our social funds.”