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SVR Warns Housing Shortage Hits Migrants Hard in Germany

The annual report urges targeted spending in poor urban districts with fairer rental screening to slow rising social segregation.

Overview

  • Germany’s expert council on integration and migration, in a report released Tuesday, warns that tight rental markets are fueling fights over affordable homes that fall most heavily on people with migration histories.
  • The report finds migrants and their children have less living space, face more overcrowding, own homes less often, and pay a larger share of income on rent because of lower earnings and discrimination.
  • Ethnic clustering has eased in recent years, yet separation by income has grown as lower‑income newcomers concentrate in stressed city neighborhoods.
  • The council calls for investment in schools, childcare, health care and local social services in poor, high‑migration districts, and it backs anonymous rental applications to reduce early‑stage bias.
  • The authors seek more social housing, note federal data showing a 10.8% rise in 2025 building permits and a new nonprofit housing status with tax breaks, and caution that an Equal Treatment Act clause could be used to justify turning away tenants by origin.