The number of migrant-background residents in Germany has reached a new all-time high at 25.5 percent of the population, and a significant 42 per cent of young children in Germany are of migrant backgrounds.
The new statistics come from a report released by the German Federal Statistical Office this week which states there are now 20.8 million German residents who come from migrant backgrounds, defined by having at least one parent born overseas, Kronen Zeitung reports.
Of those 20.8 million, just over half, or 52 percent, hold a German passport, with the other 48 percent being citizens of foreign countries.
The report states that 13.5 million German residents are immigrants and found that that main motivation for moving to the country, which was seen in 48 percent of cases, was family reunification, also known as chain migration.
Western Germany: 42 Percent of Children Under Six Come from Migration Background https://t.co/sstoOLm8mE
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 21, 2018
A further 19 percent say they moved to Germany for employment reasons, while 15 percent had come to the country as asylum seekers. Just five percent said they were in Germany as part of their education.
The vast majority of migrants who came to Germany to live with family, 72 percent, were from another European country, while around half of the asylum seekers were from the Middle Eastern region.
The figures mark a large increase in migrant-background residents since last year when the statistical office reported that there were 19.3 million residents with a migration-background.
While mass migration has been a major factor in the rapid demographic changes in Germany, hundreds of thousands of Germans also move overseas each year. In 2017 alone, nearly a quarter of a million Germans moved abroad.
Several German cities have seen major demographical shifts with Frankfurt becoming the first German city where native Germans are a minority in 2017.
Frankfurt is joined by the cities of Offenbach, Heilbronn, Sindelfingen and Pforzheim, which also have native Germans as a minority. In Offenbach, only 37 percent of the population are native Germans.
German City: Only 8 Percent of Migrant School Kids Speak Fluent German https://t.co/fUht8aT8f9
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 10, 2019
Several other major German cities are trending toward natives becoming a minority as well, such as Nuremberg where migrant-background residents make up 44.6 percent of the population, Stuttgart, where they make up 44.1 percent and Munich with 43.2 percent.
However, when breaking the figures down by age bracket, 60 percent of the under 18s in Stuttgart come from a migrant-background, illustrating the future demographic of the city.
When age groups are taken into consideration across Western Germany, the figures reveal that at least 42 percent of children under the age of six have a migrant-background.
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