Afghans in Germany

In the 1970s, about 2,000 Afghans resided in West Germany, most were businessmen and students. The trade city of Hamburg particularly attracted Afghan carpet traders who would sell Afghan carpets. With the onset of the Soviet-Afghan War in Afghanistan, many fled to West Germany and the population grew to about 11,000 by 1982. Another wave started in the 1990s and the Afghan population reached about 50,000 by 1994.[5]

Germany forms one of the biggest Afghan diaspora communities in the world. It was estimated that the population numbered around 70,000 as of 2001.[6]

Historically most Afghans came to Germany as families. From 2012 there was a rising number of Afghan asylum seekers and a shifting trend to individual arrivals of Afghan men, rather than whole families.[5]

Following the European migrant crisis, the community rapidly expanded, numbering 253,000 in 2016, up from 75,000 in 2014.[1][7]

In late December 2016, Germany decided to repatriate 11,900 Afghans back to their home country, what is known as Second collective deportation.[8]

In 2008 Hamburg had the highest Afghan diasporic population of any city in the continent, with 7,000 German citizens of Afghan origin and 14,000 other residents of Afghan origin. Immigration began with the start of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979 and additional immigration came after its end. Due to the differing origins and political affiliations of the émigrés, Jochen-Martin Dutsch et al. wrote in Der Spiegel that "Hamburg's Afghan community was relatively loose-knit and was rarely perceived as an ethnic group, partly because these immigrants had been so deeply divided at home that there was little left to unite them as a community abroad."[9] Therefore, the residents focused internally on their own families and keeping them together.[9]

Most Germans with Afghan heritage are Muslims. There is also a small population of Afghan Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews and nonreligious in Germany.

Many of the early Afghan migrants were well-educated and professionally trained in Afghanistan, however they found difficulties finding work in their professional fields. Over years the backgrounds of the migrants have become more diverse, and the more recent ones tend to be less educated or professionally trained by comparison.[5]

Associations include the Afghan-German Association for Education, Health and Crafts founded in 2002, the Afghanistan Information Center founded in 1993, and the Afghan Women's Association founded in 1992.[10]

From 1998 to 2011 the privately owned Afghan Museum operated in Hamburg's Speicherstadt district.

In 2016 there were 157 underage individuals of Afghan origin in child marriages according to the interior ministry.[11]

• Afghanistan–Germany relations
• Afghans in the Netherlands