Germany Remains Attractive For Immigrants

Last year, more people moved to Germany than emigrated. Above all, the East German state Brandenburg benefited more from the moves within Germany.

Last year, 400,000 more people came to Germany than moved away. Overall, there were 1.58 million foreign arrivals, while 1.18 million people moved abroad, as the Federal Statistical Office In Wiesbaden-Germany Announced.

The so-called net migration was thus slightly lower...in 2017 it was still at 416,000 people. The migration surplus is reportedly mainly due to foreign immigrants. A total of 87 percent of the immigrants had a foreign passport. A year earlier, it was still 89 percent.

The immigration of Germans, who previously lived abroad, has increased. In 2017, 167,000 Germans from abroad moved back to Germany, compared to 202,000 last year. Even more German citizens, namely 262,000 emigrated abroad. A year earlier, there were still 249,000.

Most of the net immigration of EU nationals were made by immigrants from Romania-68,000, Croatia-29,000 and Bulgaria-27,000. According to the statisticians, non-EU non-EU citizens showed the highest growth among Albanians, Turks, and people from Kosovo. For example, while in 2017 around one thousand Albanians were more than immigrants, there was an Albanian immigration increase of 8000 people last year.

The "migration balance" also shows how immigration from different states changed compared to the previous year. For example, in 2017 it amounted to 60,000 for people from Syria, while in the past year only 34,000 Syrians more emigrated.

With the movements within Germany, the so-called intra-German migrations, the German federal state-Brandenburg benefited the most with a migration balance of 15,000 people. In Bavaria, more than 9,000 people moved in compared to other federal states, while in Schleswig-Holstein an increase of 8,000 people was recorded. The German federal states, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein, according to the information, received mainly from Berlin and Hamburg. Thus, Berlin lost 8,000 inhabitants to other federal states, in North Rhine-Westphalia lost 10,000 people by emigration.

In 2017, with more than 4,000 entries for the first time since 1991, more inflows from the old to the new German states than the other way around, the so-called internal migration balance in the East last year amounted to 700 people. This was mainly due to a lower emigration from the new federal states, it was said.

Francis Tawiah (Duisburg - Germany)