16.3 Million People In Germany Have Migrant Roots

23 Dec 2013

According to the statistics released on International Migrants Day, a fifth of Germany’s population has foreign roots, which is a rise of 8.5 per cent since 2005.

As per the Federal Statistics Office, 16.3 million people living in Germany in 2012 have migrant roots. Out of them, 10.9 million people have returned from overseas since 1949 and 5.4 million are the offspring of those returning migrants.

More than 70 per cent of the immigrants arrived in Germany from Europe and almost a third arrived from a member state of EU. A further 2.5 per cent are from the US and 3.5 per cent from Africa, while 15.7 per cent migrants in Germany are from Asia. Just 0.2 per cent are from Oceania or Australia and people with migrant roots who cannot be classified into any one category are just over 7 per cent. This applies, for instance, to children whose parents are from different countries.

Destasis is the federal statistics office which collated the data. A spokesman for Destasis told The Local in German there was migrationshintergrund, which is an approved definition of ‘people with migrant roots’.

As per this definition, clearly all migrants themselves and their children count along with any further generations who do not have German Citizenship.

However, if the initial migrant receives German Citizenship, and their children are born in Germany as Germans, both of these 1^st generations are counted as having migrant roots.

The spokesman said that only the 2^nd generation who is born in Germany as Germans lose the label of ‘people with migrant roots’.

At the end of the 1950’s migration to Germany has increased with the arrival of ‘guest workers’ to boost Germany’s post-war recovery.

There was a rise in the number of asylum seekers in the 1980’s, while the following decade saw the return of native Germans from Eastern Europe. In the recent times, many southern Europeans are attracted to Germany due to the Eurozone financial crisis.

While there is a significant rise in the portion of second generation migrants, for the first time in 2012, the number of people arriving in Germany exceeded that of 2^nd generation migrants.