Overview
- Roughly one in five of Germany’s 1.7 million care workers are foreign nationals, with Poland still the largest source and about 16,000 Indians employed as of April 2025, according to the Federal Employment Agency.
- Bavaria reports India as the top origin for new applications by nursing staff after the state centralized processing in 2023 to speed decisions.
- Recruiters including Thomas Awiszus and Matthias Mauch say India is likely to become Germany’s leading supplier of foreign nurses within roughly five years.
- Improving wages and rising return migration in Poland are shrinking outflows to Germany, prompting a pivot toward India’s large, younger labor market.
- Scale-up is constrained by German-language requirements—often about 18 months to reach B2—along with credential recognition and integration hurdles.