Immigration to Germany

Towards the end of World War II, and in its aftermath, up to 12 million refugees of ethnic Germans, so-called "Heimatvertriebene" (German for "expellees", literally "homeland displaced persons") were forced to migrate from the former German areas, as for instance Silesia or East Prussia, to the new formed States of post-war Germany and Allied-occupied Austria, because of changing borderlines in Europe.[9][10] A big wave of immigration to Germany started in the 1960s. Due to a shortage of laborers during the Wirtschaftswunder ("economic miracle") in the 1950s and 1960s, the West German government signed bilateral recruitment agreements with Italy in 1955, Greece in 1960, Turkey in 1961, Morocco in 1963, Portugal in 1964, Tunisia in 1965 and Yugoslavia in 1968. These agreements allowed the recruitment of so-called Gastarbeiter ("guest workers") to work in the industrial sector in jobs that required few qualifications. Children born to 'Gastarbeiter' received the right to reside in Germany but were not granted citizenship; this was known as the Aufenthaltsberechtigung ("right of residence"). Many of the descendants of those Gastarbeiter still live in Germany and many have acquired German citizenship, though some have moved back to their countries of origin.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) recruited workers from outside its borders differently. It criticized the Gastarbeiter policy, calling it capitalist exploitation of poor foreigners, and preferred to see its foreign workers as socialist "friends" who traveled to the GDR from other communist or socialist countries in order to learn skills which could then be applied in their home countries. Most of these came from North Vietnam, North Korea, Angola, Mozambique and Cuba. Following German reunification in 1990 many foreign workers in the new federal states of the former GDR had no legal status as immigrant workers under the Western system. Consequently, many faced deportation or premature termination of residence and work permits, as well as open discrimination in the workplace.

During the 1980s, a small but steady stream of East Germans immigrating to the West (Übersiedler) had begun with the gradual opening of the Eastern bloc. It swelled to 389,000 in 1990. After the immigration law change in 1993, it decreased by more than half to 172,000.[11]

German repatriates from Kazakhstan arriving in a camp in Friedland in 1988

During the same time, the number of ethnic Germans (Aussiedler) -Germans who had settled in German territory sometimes for centuries until WWII, i.e. in present-day Eastern Europe and Russia- began to rise in the mid-1980s to about 40,000 each year. In 1987, the number doubled, in 1988 it doubled again and in 1990 nearly 400,000 immigrated. Upon arrival, ethnic Germans became citizens at once according to Article 116 of the Basic Law, and received financial and many social benefits, including language training, as many did not speak German. Social integration was often difficult, even though ethnic Germans were entitled to German citizenship, but to many Germans they did not seem German. In 1991, restrictions went into effect, in that ethnic Germans were assigned to certain areas, losing benefits if they were moving. The German government also encouraged the estimated several million ethnic Germans living in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to remain there. Since January 1993, no more than 220,000 ethnic Germans may immigrate per year.[11]

And in parallel a third stream of immigration starting in the mid 1980s were war refugees, of which West Germany accepted more than any other West European country due to an unqualified right to asylum. From 1986 to 1989, about 380,000 refugees sought asylum, mostly from Iran and Lebanon. Between 1990 and 1992 nearly 900,000 people from former Yugoslavia, Romania, or Turkey sought asylum in a united Germany.[11] In 1992, 438,000 applied, and Germany admitted almost 70 percent of all asylum seekers registered in the European Community.[12] By comparison, in 1992 only about 100,000 people sought asylum in the U.S.[13] The growing numbers of asylum seekers led to a constitutional change severely restricting the previously unqualified right of asylum, that former "refugees [had] held sacred because of their reliance on it to escape the Nazi regime".[12]^:159 In December 1992, the Bundestag passed legislation amending the Basic Law, in which article 16 was changed to 16a.[12] Persons entering Germany save from third countries were no longer granted asylum, and applications from nationals of so-called safe third countries of origin were refused.[14] As of 2008, the numbers of asylum seekers had dropped significantly.[15]^:16

Proportion of Germans without a migrant background (2016)

Due to the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, a rising number of refugees headed to Germany and other European countries.[16] Though only about 5 percent of the asylum applications were approved and appeals sometimes took years to be processed, many asylum seekers were able to stay in Germany and received financial and social aid from the government.[11][17]As of 2013, the approval rate was about 30 percent, and 127,000 people sought asylum.[18] During 2014 a total of about 202,834 people sought asylum in Germany.[19] Even more asylum seekers will be expected for 2015 with more than 800,000 people.[20]

As of 2016, there are over 10 million[21] foreign nationals from all around the globe living and working in Germany, making up almost 12% of the population.

As of 2014, about 16.3 million people with an immigrant background were living in Germany, accounting for every fifth person[18] Of those 16.3 million, 8.2 million had no German citizenship, more than ever before. Most of them had Turkish, Eastern European or Southern European background. The majority of new foreigners coming to Germany in 2014 were from new EU member states such as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, non-EU European countries like Albania, North Macedonia, Switzerland and Norway or from the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, South America, North America, Australia and Zealandia. Due to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, many people are hoping to seek asylum in the European Union and Germany.[22] The vast majority of immigrants are residing in the so-called old states of Germany.[23][24]

Police intercepts refugees and potential illegal immigrants at Munich Central Station

In 2014 more than 276,000 people entered illegally into the European Union, an increase of 138% from 2013.[26] The numbers of asylum applications and illegal immigration to Europe and especially Germany rose from 2013 onwards, the refugee camps became overcrowded.[27]

On 20 March 2015 the Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany stated that the average duration of an asylum application procedure was about ​5 ¹⁄₂ months. Because there are often problems with the identification of refugees, finger print scans will be introduced, and individuals will be checked in more detail to identify their true place of origin.[28] Due to the high burden for the several German States, the Federal Minister of the Interior also claims to deport illegals more quickly and individuals with denied asylum applications.[29]

The original prediction of about 450,000 asylum seekers for 2015 in Germany rose to over 800,000 people, which is almost double the number of the previous prediction for this year and four times the amount of the prior year.[20] In a letter written by the Vice-Chancellor of Germany to his fellow party members, the possible number of 800,000 refugees was raised again to over 1,000,000 refugees in Germany.[30]

The Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs said that alleged refugees and illegals, especially from the Western Balkans area who have no chance of staying in Germany must be sent back to their country of origin as soon as possible.[31] The number of asylum seekers from the Western Balkans area has dramatically increased during the last year. Migrants from the Western Balkans area especially from Kosovo see that as an opportunity, since they can stay longer and make most of their time, as the application needs more time to be processed.EU Asylum Policy pdf Furthermore, the deportation of illegal residents in Germany has almost doubled in the first 6 months in comparison to the same period in the prior year.[32]

In 2015, Germany received 900 000 asylum seekers and spent €16 billion (0.5% of GDP) on its migrants that year.[33]

In 2017 the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Germany reported that of the 340,000 migrants who participated in German language courses during 2016, less than half at 113,050 received a passing grade. The authority had no idea why.[34]

In April 2018 more than half, at 55%, of the recipients of unemployment benefits had a migration background.[35] According to the Federal Employment Agency (German: Bundesagentur für Arbeit) this was due to the migrants lacking either employable skills or knowledge of the language.[35]

The 2018 Ellwangen police raid, in which residents of a migrant shelter rioted to prevent police from deporting an asylum seeker whose claim had been deemed invalid, sparked a significant political debate.[36]

In 2015, the majority of Germans were extremely supportive towards the mass migration of immigrants entering into Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, coined the phrase which most of the country rallied behind, “Wir schaffen das,” which translates into English as, we can do it. In 2015, the brunt of the European immigration crisis was placed on Germany when 890,000 refugees crossed the border and applied for asylum, most of them fleeing from the Syrian War. A 2015 survey shows that 46% of the entire German population was facilitating help in some way for refugees. All over, German citizens were creating initiatives and support groups for asylum seekers as well as donating their time to help on site with refugees. Media helped shape the German attitudes as well as put pressure on the government by covering the victims of immigration and by showing individual stories, which humanized them. After the events in Cologne on New Year's Eve, there was a drastic change of media coverage, as well as the public opinion of immigrants. The media went from showing women and children who suffered from war crime victims, to Arab men assaulting German women in large groups. The media also highlighted massive groups of immigrants crossing the border into Germany instead of the earlier coverage of individual refugee's stories. This caused Germans to now fear how expensive all of these immigrants would be, the earlier phrase, “Wir schaffen das” suggested that funding for these refugees was not an issue. The cost to support all of these refugees added up to around 21 billion euros, about the size of Germanys defense budget.

Governmental opinion has also shifted over the years. The intake of refugees has consistently dropped over the last few years; however, the number of deportations only continued to increase and leveled out at around 20,000.[37]

The influx of migrant refugees has had a negative impact on the crime rates of Germany. Since the 1990s, the crime rate has been dropping in Germany until 2014. However, the rate of crime has been increasing over the last few years. From 2014 to 2016, the amount of crime has increased. Violent crimes saw an increase of 7.2% over that period of time.[38] A government backed study of the Lower Saxony Region showed an increase of 10.2% in violent crimes. This region is also one of the regions to take in the most asylum seekers.[39] Asylum seekers are four times as represented in the number of suspects in police investigations compared to the percentage of the total population of Germany.[40]

European Union free movement of workers principles require that all EU member state citizens have the right to solicit and obtain work in Germany free from discrimination on the basis of citizenship. These basic rules for freedom of movement are given in Article 39 of the Treaty on European Union. (see also Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely). However, citizens of Croatia are exempt from the free movement of workers principle for a transition period of no more than 7 years (ending 2020), after the country's EU Accession in 2013.[41] (see for more details 2013 enlargement of the European Union#Post-accession access to free movement in other EU member states)

Immigration to Germany as a non-EU-citizen is limited to skilled or highly educated workers and their immediate family members.[42]

Self-employment requires either an initial investment of EUR 250,000 and the creation of a minimum 5 jobs.[43]

New regulations were enacted in 2020 in response to the 2019 Skilled Immigration Act.[8] In order to qualify for a visa under the new rules, applicants must obtain an official recognition of their professional qualification from a certification authority recognized by the German government.[8] Further, the applicant must meet language competency requirements and obtain a declaration from their prospective employer.[8]

According to a study of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), around 54 percent of foreign students in Germany decide to stay after graduation.[44]

"6.180,013" Ausländer in Deutschland

"Unsere Aufnahmekapazität ist begrenzt, ..."

German Foreign Office

Federal Office for Migration and Refugees

Legal Guide to Germany

German Citizenship Test

Information for moving to and working in Germany for immigrants