Germany: Over Third of Population Will Have Migrant Roots in 20 Years

A German migration expert claims that at least 35 per cent of the German population will have foreign backgrounds by the year 2040, rising to as much as 70 per cent in major cities.

The head of migrant research at the Federal Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Herbert Brücker, speaking to the German newspaper Die Welt said: “Currently, about a quarter of the people in Germany have a migrant background. In 20 years, it will be at least 35 per cent, but could also be more than 40 per cent.”

Brücker expects that the percentage will probably be much higher in German cities, saying in comments reported by DW: “What we see in the big cities today will be normal for the country as a whole in the future.”

“In a city like Frankfurt, we’ll have between 65 per cent to 70 per cent,” he added.

In 2017, Frankfurt became the first German city to have a higher percentage of people with a migration background than native Germans.

There are currently over 20.8 million German residents who come from migration backgrounds, which is determined by having at least one parent born overseas.

The biggest driver of migration to Germany is chain migration, or “family reunification”, with 48 per cent of all migrants claiming it as their main motivation.

While mass migration has been a key driver of demographic shifts in Germany, hundreds of thousands of Germans choose to leave the country every year, with nearly a quarter of a million leaving in 2017 alone.

Herbert Brücker says that migration is essential for the country’s economic future, claiming that Germany needs an average of 400,000 migrants per year for the next 40 years in order to avoid an economic decline.

He added that Germany should focus on drawing high skill labour, suggesting that migration should be opened to other countries because the labour pools of Eastern and Southern Europe have been depleted.