Oct 28, 2022
Developer insights: do foreign developers have a worse experience in Germany?
While we don’t find comprehensive data on salary differences — this is apparently measured, but not compiled — we do get stats on software developers who are not in possession of citizenship.
Share of “Ausländer” among software developers
In particular, the Federal Agency for Employment logs the percentage of software developers without citizenship (“Ausländer”) for the various districts as well as their share among jobseekers.
For overall Germany, we have 17% “Ausländer” among engineers in 2021, and their share is 21% among those engineers who are seeking a job.
Berlin and Munich attract expat software developers
I looked up 9 sample cities and the respective numbers. Berlin and Munich are “expat cities”, meaning they attract well over a third of their software developers from among folks who are not citizens.
It is glaringly apparent that cities like Berlin and those in Northern-Rhine Westphalia don’t have much of a difference in the jobseeking department. Go Berlin! 🤩
Differences between citizens and non-citizens
However, Hanover, Frankfurt and Stuttgart stick out sorely. From anecdotal evidence I hear that non-citizen salaries are usually lower, and more so in the rural areas.
What do you think about visualizations like these? Do you want to see more of them? Please comment!
Exact numbers
The numbers for % non-citizens and % non-citizen jobseekers:
Germany — 17% — 21%
Berlin — 38% — 37%
Munich — 33% — 39%
Düsseldorf — 25% — 26%
Frankfurt — 24% — 32%
Stuttgart — 17% — 28%
Cologne — 15% -13%
Hamburg — 15% -20%
Leipzig — 10% — 13%
Hanover — 8% — 23%
