Germany’s new government promised a “migration turnaround,” but it turns out, this was mostly a pack of lies, half-truths, and misinformation, all designed to disguise the ongoing wave of unceasing immigration.
In response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Green Party in the German Bundestag, the Interior Ministry has indicated that only 993 asylum seekers were stopped at Germany’s borders between May and October and turned back.
However, as Bild columnist Gunnar Schupelius notes, this is a mere drop in the bucket, and immigration is still going full throttle.
“The much-vaunted turnaround in asylum policy is still nowhere in sight,” he writes.
He points out that 157,436 asylum applications were already submitted in Germany from January to November 2026, according to the BAMF. In addition, the Federal Foreign Office indicates that 102,000 visas for family reunification were issued for children and spouses of recognized asylum seekers during the same period.
In total, that is 259,436 new migrants for Germany.
However, that is not all, with an additional 37,000 Afghans flown into the country due to an admissions program that has come under fire, especially due to the poor integration record of Afghans in Germany.
That brings the total to 296,436, nearly 300,000.
Despite this disastrous track record, the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), who claim to be conservatives, are trying to put lipstick on their track record.
German Interior Minister noted that asylum applications fell by 50 percent compared to the previous year. He said this is a “migration turnaround” that was promised.
“We have succeeded – especially at the beginning of my term in office – in reducing the pull factors for refugees by strengthening border controls, refoulement, but also by suspending family reunification and abolishing turbo-naturalization,” he said.
Notably, much of the reduction in asylum seekers has been achieved on the Europe-wide level, including the tightening of land borders and sea routes. However, hundreds of thousands are still entering Europe, and much of the migration now besetting Germany has to do with family reunification and legal migration.
Overall, data from late 2024 and early 2025 indicate that approximately 545,000 first residence permits were issued in 2024. In that number are also family reunifications and other legal migrants, but Germans also want those numbers sharply restricted.
Notably, the majority of Germans are also opposed to legal migration and want significantly fewer migrants overall, as polling has shown. The poll from YouGov even showed that a majority of Germans would support an immigration moratorium, a far cry from what the current government is offering.
