German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s early July trip to South America aimed to rebuild stable relationships with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay after the EU closed the Mercosur deal. While Germany is looking for economic partners for its export-focused economy, its representatives also had to address Germany’s skilled worker shortage by appealing to young South Americans.
However, there are things that could hinder this strategy. How immigrants are welcomed in Germany nowadays is somewhat controversial, along with diplomatic hurdles after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s remarks during a 2025 visit to Brazil.
Xenophobia and Racism in Germany
During the visit, Wadephul said xenophobia and racism in Germany are overstated, attempting to assuage the worries of local youth.
“There’s a bit too much talk about the problems and not enough about the successes. Because a great deal is succeeding,” he stated about integration efforts during a discussion with young language students at the Goethe Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. He admitted that there is problematic crime in this area, but there are also “many overreactions from Germans, which are also problematic and unnecessary.”
He believes Germany to be “in a learning process” about who is German and who can become a citizen.
Many reports say that racism is widespread in Germany: the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) commissioned a survey in March that involved 8,200 people in Germany between the ages of 18 and 24 from October 2025 to January 2026.
A quarter of the surveyed believed in racial differences, while nearly half of the respondents believed certain groups were more hard-working than others.
“Discrimination in Germany is not an isolated case, but a widespread phenomenon,” Ferda Ataman, Germany’s independent federal anti-discrimination commissioner and a journalist by occupation, told the Deutsche Welle. “Discrimination doesn’t just happen on the fringes of society, but at its very core. At work, at school, when looking for a place to live, when shopping.”
“Every third family in Germany is linked to a history of migration,” said Naika Foroutan, head of DeZIM, had told InfoMigrants regarding the 2025 edition of the same study when it was published. “Discriminatory experiences therefore affect a large segment of society.”
Social Reality vs Economic Need
Despite this social reality, the German economy needs immigration to function; a contradiction the government is finding difficult to balance.
Germany, like many nations, is trying to find its footing as the US withdraws from international cooperations and China is rising as a global rival in trade. In an effort to reduce German dependence on China, trade partnerships were strengthened with several nations, to diversify procurement of rare earth elements and critical elements, such as metals for industry and lithium for e-batteries.
Negotiations were undercut by an anxiety left behind after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s comments during the COP30 meeting in Belém, Brazil. “We live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Last week I asked some journalists who were with me in Brazil: Which of you would like to stay here? No one raised their hand,” Merz said. “They were all happy that, above all, we returned from this place to Germany in the night from Friday to Saturday.”
He apologized after being widely criticized by locals, reconciling with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Johannesburg G20 Summit. As such, Wadephul struck a humble tone, treating each country as equal democracies, in order to establish contacts with the new, conservative governments that remained out of touch so far.
Great Chance in South America
Wadephul added that over 10,000 students in Brazil alone are attending German schools abroad: these schools are instrumental for acquiring German language skills and are key to integration. “Germany urgently needs skilled workers – and the openness to welcome them to our country,” he added.
Nearly 10,000 people take language tests offered by the Goethe Institut annually, which has four establishments across Brazil with 2,800 course participants each year, according to Jörg Klinner, head of the Goethe-Institut’s “Language Work South America” program in São Paulo.
Eight percent of students graduating from German schools abroad in Brazil with an Abitur (the German university entrance qualification) continue their studies in Germany.
