Überfremdung (pronounced [ˌyːbɐˈfʁɛmdʊŋ] ⓘ), literally 'over-foreignization', is a German-language term used to refer to an excess of immigration.
The German term has had several meanings over the years, all of which have reflected the sense of "too foreign" and "threatening", and are generally negative.
Successive editions of the Duden dictionary illustrate how the meaning has changed since the term was first used in 1929, then meaning "taking on too much foreign money" (especially loans made from 1924–1929 to rebuild Germany, following the First World War).
Following the Second World War, the 1951/1952 version of the Duden returned to the strictly economic definition.
The word is related to terms in various languages: foreign infiltration, foreign penetration, French surpopulation étrangère [fr], déculturation [fr], envahissement par des étrangers [fr], Spanish extranjerización [es], Italian infiltrazione straniera [it], and הסתננות מאפריקה לישראל [he] (Hebrew for 'infiltration from Africa to Israel'), which have all been used at various times to rally xenophobic sentiment.