In Austria, the percentage of foreign-born individuals has already exceeded twenty percent, while in Vienna, almost half of the residents are non-Austrian. The latest statistical data from the Austrian Integration Fund paints a bleak picture of the unemployment rate among people with migration backgrounds and also highlights the increasing number of students who do not speak German in Austrian schools.
Another dismal set of data was released by the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) regarding the consequences of migration in our western neighbor – as detailed by the Exxpress portal.
Among the examined regions of Austria, Vienna leads the ranking: here, the percentage of foreign-born individuals is the highest at 40.2%, with almost 806,200 foreign-born people living in the federal capital at the beginning of 2024. Vorarlberg (23.2%) ranks second, and Salzburg (21.9%) third.
Nationally, the situation is not much better, with more than one in five individuals being born outside Austria, accounting for 22.3% of the total population.
The percentage of foreign-born individuals has increased by 2.7 percentage points since 2019. The majority were born in Germany (265,000), Bosnia-Herzegovina (179,000), and Turkey (165,000).
The study by the Austrian Integration Fund also presented new unemployment data. While the unemployment rate among Austrian citizens decreased from 5.4% in 2022 to 5.3% in 2023, it increased among foreigners from 9.1% in 2022 to 9.6% in 2023.
This difference is particularly noticeable in Vienna and Carinthia. In Vienna, the unemployment rate was 8.1% for Austrians and 15.1% for foreigners, both exceeding the Austrian average. In Carinthia, the unemployment rate also increased for Austrians by 6.6% and for foreigners by 8.8%.
Even more alarming are the latest statistical data on language use and the ethnic composition of schools. The Exxpress pointed out that teachers and principals who complain about the disappearance of the German language from schoolyards are right.
According to the ÖIF survey, the proportion of students who do not speak German has increased. In the 2022/23 school year, 27% of Austrian students had a different native language, representing a slight 1 percentage point increase compared to the 2017/18 year.
However, the distribution of these students varies greatly among school types. Special and technical schools had particularly high percentages of non-German-speaking students: 42.9% and 38.9%, respectively. The rate at new high schools was also above average at 34.8%. In contrast, only about half, specifically 21.0% in AHS (general education school, equivalent to gymnasium in some countries) and 19.7% in BHS (vocational school), spoke a language other than German.
The lowest proportion was recorded in vocational schools, where only 13.7% of students mentioned a language other than German. In this category, Vienna also leads the negative ranking: the former imperial city has the highest percentage of non-German-speaking students at 51.7%.
