E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
Country Resource - Germany

Germany

DE
  • Population..............................................................................84,220,184 (2023 est.)
  • Population growth rate ................................................................-0.12% (2023 est.)
  • Birth rate.....................................................9.02 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Death rate................................................11.97 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Net migration rate................................1.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Ethnic groups*.........................German 86.3%, Turkish 1.8%, Polish 1%, Syrian 1%, Romanian 1%, other/stateless/unspecified 8.9% (2020 est.)

* Data represent population by nationality

CIA World Factbook

BerlinSeesSyria ekvidi Flickr

Although long one of the world's top migrant destinations, only in the recent past has Germany come to acknowledge and adjust to its role as a country of immigration. Its welcoming approach—a relatively new development—has been put to the test amid massive humanitarian inflows beginning in 2015. This country profile examines Germany's history on immigration and highlights current and emerging debates.

Recent Activity

Rainer Münz of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics analyzes Germany's long-awaited immigration law.

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Since the 1990s, analysts have pointed to Germany's ongoing need for immigrants to bolster economic development and maintain a dynamic workforce, given the rapid aging of the country's population. However, a process of policy review that began in 2001 with a government commission's report on immigration and integration policy only recently overcame legislative gridlock.

The number of ethnic Germans born abroad who immigrated to their ancestral homeland in 2003 was much lower than the previous year, reports Veysel Oezcan of Humboldt University Berlin.
Veysel Oezcan of Humboldt University Berlin reports on a key ruling affecting integration, religious freedom, and educators.
Veysel Oezcan of Humboldt University Berlin reports on how fewer foreign residents of Germany are obtaining citizenship under the provisions of a citizenship law passed in 2000.
The German government is testing various biometric registration methods for visa applicants.

A German court has restored the job of a Muslim nursery school teacher dismissed from her post for wearing a symbol of her faith, the headscarf.

The German Constitutional Court has blocked a landmark immigration law scheduled to take effect at the beginning of 2003, temporarily ending a running dispute between the ruling and opposition parties.
Germany's two biggest political parties have come out in favor of Islamic education for the country's estimated 350,000 Muslim schoolchildren.
Following a bitterly contested vote in Parliament, Germany's president has signed the nation's first immigration law.

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Reports
October 2018

Faced with an aging workforce and growing skill shortages in the IT sector, some German policymakers and industry experts have seized on the idea that recently arrived refugees could be a natural fit for careers in tech. This report examines the case for training refugees for IT jobs and explores the variety of coding schools that have cropped up in Germany to help newcomers succeed in the field.

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Reports
August 2018

Even as populist radical-right parties have experienced mixed electoral success, their ideas have gained traction in Europe and the United States. This report analyzes the economic, political, and social factors behind the rise in support for the radical-right agenda, and the impact of this trend on immigration policymaking and the broader political landscape on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Reports
April 2018

With many young children among the refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe and North America in recent years, policymakers and service providers are grappling with the task of designing and scaling up critical early childhood services. This report examines the approaches taken in nine key host countries, highlighting common challenges and promising practices.

Designing Civic Education for Diverse Societies
Reports
February 2018

Across Europe, civic education programs are being asked to solve a range of social challenges—from dwindling political participation to the protection of immigrant and refugee youth from alienation and radicalization. While these challenges are shared across countries, the programs designed to address them vary considerably. This report explores differing models in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit
Reports
November 2017

Amid ongoing Brexit negotiations, much remains uncertain for the roughly 1 million UK citizens living elsewhere in the European Union. This report offers a demographic profile of these Brexpats, considering what form an EU-UK deal on citizens’ rights might take and identifying key challenges many Britons are likely to face—including difficulty securing legal status and accessing labor markets, social security, and health-care systems.

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Reports
October 2016

A key question confronting German policymakers has been how to successfully integrate asylum seekers into the labor market after record numbers arrived in 2015. This report examines the challenges newcomers face in getting jobs at their skill level as well as accessing language and training courses. The report outlines the many integration initiatives created in Germany, and offers recommendations for greater effectiveness.

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Reports
June 2016

As immigrant-skeptic movements gained salience, and even political representation, in several European countries in recent years, Germany remained a relative outlier until mid-2015. This report explains how a pro-immigrant consensus evolved and persisted in Germany during the period from 2005—as the country emerged from recession and embarked on a reform of its immigration laws—through to the events of mid-2015.

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Reports
June 2016

This report sheds light on supplementary funding mechanisms targeted to migrant-background students in four countries—Canada, France, Germany, and the United States—and some of the key challenges and strategies decisionmakers face as they attempt to ensure that additional resources are used effectively to remedy the achievement gaps that immigrant and refugee students often confront.

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Reports
February 2016

This Transatlantic Council on Migration report describes how the migration of nationals between Germany and Turkey has developed over recent decades; examines the economic, social, and political factors behind this development; and discusses the policy implications and lessons that can be drawn.

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Reports
February 2015

While a number of major migrant-sending countries like Morocco and Turkey have started to take an active role in the integration of their migrants abroad, the role of subnational authorities has been overshadowed by diaspora engagement initiatives at the national level. This report investigates how the activities of origin countries' regional and local institutions may improve the lives of emigrants to Member States of the European Union.

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