Immigration to Germany
[2] Even before Germany's formal founding in 1871, its predecessor states, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation, were common destinations for the persecuted or migrant workers.
[6] The economic boom of the 2010s, coupled with the elimination of working visa requirements for many EU citizens, brought a sustained inflow from elsewhere in Europe.
[15][16] 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.
However, many companies repeatedly renewed the work permits;[18] some of the bilateral treaties were even updated to give workers permanent residency upon arrival.
[19] As a result, even though many did ultimately return to their countries of origin, several million of the recruited workers and their families ended up settling in Germany permanently.
Nevertheless, the government continued to encourage the public perception of the arriving immigrants as temporary guest workers (Gastarbeiter) and for many years made little provision for their integration into German society.
[24] The government portrayed East Germany as a post-racial society and called the foreign workers socialist "friends" who would learn skills which could then be applied in their home countries.
Consequently, many faced deportation or premature termination of residence and work permits, as well as open discrimination in the workplace and racism in everyday life.
[34] Notable numbers of asylum seekers came from Turkey after a military coup in 1980 and, separately, due to ongoing persecution of Turkish Kurds in the country.
[29][41] In June 2015, new arrivals of asylum seekers, which had been increasing steadily for years,[44] began to rise sharply,[45] driven especially by refugees fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then-chancellor Angela Merkel declared in a speech, “Wir schaffen das" (roughly, "we can do this"), which was widely used by news media as well as the public as a defining statement of her policy during the crisis.
[56] 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.
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 German attitudes as well as put pressure on the government by covering the victims of immigration and by showing individual stories, which humanized them.
In addition to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, this invasion has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, with around 7.5 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced.
[67] The German government has already signed or is negotiating migration partnerships with Morocco, Nigeria, India, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Moldova.
[75] European Union free movement of workers principles require that all EU member state citizens have the right to solicit and obtain work in Germany regardless of citizenship.
[79] In order to qualify for a visa under the new rules, applicants must obtain official recognition of their professional qualification from a certification authority recognized by the German government.
[80] According to a study from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), around 54 percent of foreign students in Germany decide to stay after graduation.
[13] The new legislation also introduces a so-called chance card, which gives applicants without a job offer but with enough qualifications the opportunity to live and work in Germany.
[12][82] Chance card holders must have a university degree or professional training, and must also demonstrate some German proficiency or advanced English skills.
[85][88] The traffic light coalition that was created after the 2021 federal elections committed to implementing immigration reforms in an effort to make Germany a more competitive labor market.
[89] The government argues that Germany, facing a shortage of skilled workers,[89] must attract new talent by facilitating immigration for work[89] and by upending citizenship uptake laws that were among the world's most restrictive.
[90] The government's actions were a response to long standing demands from progressives to modernize German immigration policy[90] and from industry leaders to combat a shortage of skilled labor.
The government argues that the reforms create opportunity and provide security for the 14% of the population that do not have citizenship,[86] aligning German policy with that of Western peers like Canada and France.
[90] In 2024, party members were caught meeting with neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists to discuss the forcible "remigration"[94] of German citizens they deemed insufficiently assimilated.
[90][94] News of the meeting triggered massive public backlash as tens of thousands of Germans gathered in major cities like Stuttgart, Berlin and Munich to protest the plan.
[97] Germany's national ban on deportation doesn't permit returning refugees to their home country should doing so place them in imminent danger or that doing so would break EU human rights laws.
[108] An institute of forensic medicine in Münster determined the age of 594 of unaccompanied minors in 2019 and found that 234 (40%) were likely 18 years or older and would therefore be processed as adults by authorities.
The applicant must:[111]: 19 A person who does not fulfill all of these criteria may still apply for German citizenship by discretionary naturalisation (Ermessenseinbürgerung) as long as certain minimum requirements are met.
