More Rejections for Work Permits in Fürth than the Bavarian Average

In the city of Fürth and the district of Fürth, applications for work permits for foreign workers are rejected more frequently than the Bavarian average. This is shown by district-specific evaluations for the years 2018 to 2024. The figures make regional differences visible – but on their own, they do not yet provide a clear explanation as to why procedures in individual regions fail more often.

The basis of the evaluation is an expert report by the University of Konstanz, commissioned by the Green Party parliamentary group in the Bavarian State Parliament. Approvals and rejections of job applications at the district level were examined for the period 2018 to 2024.

For the city of Fürth, a rejection rate of 15.3 percent is given for this period, and for the district of Fürth, 14.7 percent. The Bavarian average is 13.5 percent. Thus, the city of Fürth is 1.8 percentage points above the state value, the district 1.2 percentage points above. Higher rates are also reported for the year 2024: 17.5 percent in the city of Fürth and 18.2 percent in the district.

Significant Range within Bavaria

The extent of the differences within the Free State is illustrated by the extreme values from the same evaluation: For the district of Dingolfing-Landau, an average rejection rate of 24.9 percent is given for 2018 to 2024, for the district of Ebersberg near Munich, 7.9 percent. The data thus point less to a uniform Bavarian pattern than to strongly divergent results on the ground.

Why the Rate Does Not Automatically Explain “the Authority”

For classification, it is crucial how work permits come about through the interaction of several agencies.

The immigration authorities in the city and district of Fürth do not decide alone on the admission of foreign workers to the labor market in many cases, according to legal requirements. The Federal Employment Agency is often involved before a decision is made. It checks whether labor market admission is possible. The immigration authorities are bound by this decision; they have no discretion of their own in this matter.

This has consequences for the interpretation of the statistics: A higher rejection rate reflects the outcome of a procedure, not automatically the performance or “strictness” of a single local agency. Therefore, no simple assignment of blame can be derived from the available data. They show that applications fail more often in Fürth – but they do not answer at which point in the process, for what reasons, and under what conditions this happens.

Political Assessment and Calls for Reform

Barbara Fuchs, economic policy spokesperson for the Greens in the Bavarian State Parliament, takes a critical view of the figures for the region. The city and district of Fürth depend on immigration and international workers; it is alarming if significantly more job applications fail in the region than average.

The Greens derive reform demands for the procedures from the evaluation: digital and transparent processes, clear responsibilities, standardized procedures, and binding processing deadlines. Applicants and companies should thereby gain more planning security. In addition, employers should be more involved in the procedures. From Fuchs' point of view, it could burden the labor market and integration if people fail at bureaucratic hurdles despite having a job offer.

In summary: Above-average rejection rates for job applications are reported for the city and district of Fürth. Politically, these figures are relevant primarily as an indication that procedures deliver very different results regionally. However, the available material does not allow the causes of the deviations to be clearly attributed to a single authority.