The paper uses a large survey (GSOEP) to analyze the labor market performance of immigrants in Germany. It finds that new immigrant workers earn on average 20 percent less than native workers with otherwise identical characteristics. The gap is smaller for immigrants from advanced countries,...

Increasing labour shortages are mainly due to demographic developments - specifically the baby boom in Germany, with a strong peak in the early 1960s. Despite strong immigration in recent years, the ratio of 20-24 year-olds to 60-64 year-olds was only 75 to 100 in 2021, and if younger cohorts...