“We will have a German national law on integration. This is the first time this has happened in post-war Germany,” Mrs Merkel told a press conference in Berlin. “We will take a series of measures which make it clear it is a duty to integrate.”

The labour market will be opened up to asylum-seekers and the government plans to create 100,000 new jobs using public funds.

Many of these are expected to be low-paying so-called one-euro jobs topped up with in-work benefits. But the new employment opportunities will not be open to asylum-seekers from countries officially considered “safe”, who will now face speedier deportation.

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