German Immigration Reaches 16-Year High
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Immigration to Germany, the eurozone’s single largest economy, has reached its highest level in 16 years as residents from countries like Greece and Spain flee rising unemployment and weak economic prospects in their home countries.
According to data released by the Federal Statistics Office, there was 90 percent more immigrants to Germany from Greece in 2011 compared a year ago and 52 percent more from Spain in the same period.
Overall, Germany became home to an additional 958,000 people in 2011, accounting for a 20 percent increase from 2010.
Immigration to Germany, the eurozone’s single largest economy, has reached its highest level in 16 years as residents from countries like Greece and Spain flee rising unemployment and weak economic prospects in their home countries.
According to data released by the Federal Statistics Office, there was 90 percent more immigrants to Germany from Greece in 2011 compared a year ago and 52 percent more from Spain in the same period.
Overall, Germany became home to an additional 958,000 people in 2011, accounting for a 20 percent increase from 2010.
With 679,000 people leaving Germany, the next influx of immigrants was 279,000 for 2011 – the highest since 1996.
The rise came after Germany’s seven-year exemption to EU rules on the free movement of labour expired, allowing people from Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to enter the country.
Some 163,000 Poles moved to Germany in 2011, 49,000 more than in 2010, while a total of 41,000 Hungarians moved last year, 12,000 more than a year earlier.
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The federal statistics office said:
[quote] Immigration rose especially from those countries hit hard by the crisis, notably from Greece and Spain. [/quote]Immigration from outside the EU showed modest gains – 11 percent from Asia; 10 percent from North America, and only 1 percent from Africa.
Laura Gonzalez, assistant professor of finance and business economics at Fordham University in New York, commented that with youth unemployment and overall unemployment so high in Southern Europe, and with sluggish economies across the eurozone, Germany remains an attractive choice for economic migration.
The German government also published a report on integration into the German workforce last week, and more than 70 percent of employers said that the migrant workforce was important for the economy. More than 55 percent of employers also said they made a concerted effort to support integration.
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