How Germany's immigration numbers have changed

Illustrated notes from a changing country / #44

Good morning from Germany, 

I've been travelling around Southeast Europe by train for the past two weeks. The trains were full, at times overcrowded, with young people from many different countries.

The pandemic had abruptly interrupted the increase in train passenger numbers. My subjective impression: the number of travellers is back on the growth track. Travelling by train seems to be in fashion.

I like a Europe like this, where people travel across national borders. It has become so easy. Travelling enriches our lives immensely. But this “border crossing” is not only a holiday phenomenon. More and more people in Europe live in different countries than they were born. For example, more than 10 million foreign nationals live in Germany – by far the highest number of all European Union countries. 

Also relative to the number of inhabitants, Germany is in the top third. The proportion of foreign nationals in the total population of Germany is more than 13 per cent nowadays (it is mainly small countries with higher ratios, with Luxembourg number one at 47 per cent). 

This was very different in the past. While the proportion in West Germany was 1.2 per cent in 1961, by 1974, it was already 6.5 per cent. Between 2011 and 2020, the proportion of foreigners in Germany increased from 7.9 to 12.7 per cent. As said, it is now over 13 per cent.

So the question is no longer whether Germany and other European countries are an open society but how we deal with it.

Greetings from Germany, 

Johannes Eber

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