The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has released new figures showing that around 43,000 individuals engaged in integration courses are unable to read or write at all.
The 43,000 migrants were placed into special courses meant to help them learn how to both read and write but many have been totally unable to learn how to speak German in the language component of the courses, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reports.
The number of people enrolled in the special courses is an increase of 10 per cent since the same time last year. Although class sizes are small and migrants have access to greater teacher contact across around 1,300 lessons, many are said to be so poor at German that they will not likely find any type of work.
Less than a fifth, or 17 per cent, of the migrants, engaged in the programme were able to speak German at an intermediate level which is required for basic labour jobs. Of the various nationalities, BAMF reports that Iraqis and Eritrean migrants performed the worst in the language schools.
The report confirms the assessment of some economists who have predicted that mass migration will have a negative impact on the long-term economic growth of Germany.
A vast majority of the migrants who arrived during and since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 are unemployed with a report from late 2016 claiming that only three per cent had managed to find work.
As a result of not being able to find a job, many migrants have ended up on the German benefits system. Last year the German Federal Agency for Employment (BA) announced that there were half a million asylum seekers living on state handouts.
In the district of Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, the unemployment situation for migrants is even more pronounced with only 56 out of 1,530 migrants registered with the local job centre being able to find any kind of work.