Berlin Justice Senator Halts Migrant Hiring Quotas, Citing Constitutional Violation
Berlin Justice Senator Felor Badenberg suspended a quota guaranteeing 40 percent of public-sector interview slots to applicants with migration backgrounds, calling the practice unconstitutional.
A job applicant's complaint quietly set off a constitutional reckoning in Berlin. Competing for a public-sector role, that applicant found themselves passed over — not for lacking qualifications, but for lacking the right heritage. Justice Senator Felor Badenberg this month suspended a hiring practice that guaranteed 40 percent of interview slots to candidates with migration backgrounds, regardless of their examination grades.
Berlin's red-red-green coalition enacted the Law to Promote Participation in a Migration Society — known as PartMigG — in July 2021. Under the policy, the Justice Administration sorted applicants into separate lists: 60 percent of interview invitations went to candidates without migration backgrounds, 40 percent to those with one, mirroring Berlin's population share. Candidates in the latter group received invitations even when their grades fell below those of stronger-performing applicants in the former.
The suspension followed an external legal opinion that declared key provisions of PartMigG unconstitutional. The review traced back to "irregularities in hiring practice" that surfaced in October 2025, reportedly triggered by that single applicant's complaint. One person's grievance had exposed a systemic fault line.
The fault line runs through Article 33(2) of Germany's Basic Law, which guarantees every German equal access to public office "according to his aptitude, qualifications and professional achievements." This principle — Bestenauslese — requires that appointments rest on suitability, competence and performance, not demographic characteristics. The external opinion found that better- or equally-qualified candidates excluded solely by the quota had their constitutional rights violated.
According to Tagesspiegel and Bild, Generalstaatsanwältin Margarete Koppers implemented the quota system at Berlin's prosecutor's office. Koppers, appointed in March 2018 by then-Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt of the Greens, led the city's largest prosecutor's office while administering the two-list system. The Federal Statistical Office defines migration background as individuals who themselves, or at least one parent, were not born with German citizenship.
Badenberg drew a firm line. "Access to public office must be based on suitability, competence, and performance," she stated. "The Basic Law is my compass. Berlin must attract the best minds. Integration does not succeed through quotas, but through equal opportunities for all."
Her words carry a weight that goes beyond legal principle. Born in Iran and raised in Germany after arriving as a child with her parents, Badenberg told Welt and RBB24: "Just because I myself have a migration history, I know how important belonging and fair chances are." The senator who ended the quota is herself a product of the integration it purported to advance.
The decision unleashed swift political backlash from coalition partners who had championed PartMigG. SPD Integration Senator Cansel Kiziltepe challenged Badenberg's framing before the Senate. "The law is about 'equal opportunities for all,' therefore one cannot speak of a 'quota regulation,'" Kiziltepe said. Sebastian Walter, Greens Parliamentary Officer, argued that Badenberg had overstepped. "In our rule of law, constitutional courts — not a single senator — decide whether a state law is constitutional," Walter stated, warning that her approach creates "maximale Rechtsunsicherheit" in selection and hiring procedures. The Left Party's deputy fraction chair, Elif Eralp, called the decision a "scandal" and a "slap in the face" for Berliners with migration backgrounds.
Yet even some supporters of the original law acknowledged its vulnerabilities. An SPD spokesperson conceded to taz that concrete selection procedures could be legally challengeable, admitting that maintaining separate candidate lists is not covered by PartMigG or the principle of Bestenauslese when better-qualified applicants are excluded as a result. Behrendt, for his part, defended Koppers' tenure, stating in German that she had "already demonstrated in various positions that she can lead an authority fearlessly and energetically."
The employment gap the law sought to close remains stark. A 2024 survey found that 21.7 percent of employees in Berlin's direct state service have migration backgrounds — barely half the city's 40 percent population share. PartMigG now sits in legal limbo, the quota suspended, the gap unaddressed, and the deeper question unresolved: how a city builds a public service that looks like its people without sorting them by origin before they ever get a fair hearing.