Germany
Net migration has increased strongly in recent years, from 180 000 in 2010 to 680 000 in 2014. In 2015, however, net migration almost doubled, reaching almost 1.2 million. This is largely due to the high increase of people seeking asylum in Germany. Humanitarian migration decreased considerably in 2016. Between January and September 2016, the largest EU origin countries were Romania (134 000), Poland (99 000) and Bulgaria (51 000). Almost 80% of all EU migrants coming to Germany in this period came from EU countries where mobility restrictions were lifted in 2011 or later. Around 51 000 Croatian citizens, for whom mobility restrictions were fully lifted in July 2015, entered the country in 2015, compared to 37 000 in 2014 and 40 000 between January and September 2016.
The number of international students enrolled in German universities has been steadily increasing in the past years to a record number of 250 000 in the winter semester 2015/16. The main countries of origin were China (13%), India (5%) and the Russian Federation (5%).
In 2015, 82 400 persons entered Germany for family reunification, a 30% increase compared to 2014. The largest countries of origin were Syria (19%), Turkey (9%) and the Russian Federation (6%).
According to the Ministry of Interior, the number of third country labour migrants increased by around 4% to 38 800 in 2015, of whom around 28 000 were highly skilled. Around 6 800 persons came to Germany in 2015 with an EU Blue Card, a 30% increase compared to 2014.
In 2016, 722 000 first-time asylum applications were lodged, compared to 442 000 in the previous year. The increase in submitted applications, however, does not reflect a higher inflow of humanitarian migrants in 2016, but rather a time lag between migrants entering the country and formally lodging an application. As in 2015, the largest group of applicants were Syrian nationals (in both years around 37% of all applicants), followed by Afghan (18%) and Iraqi nationals (13%). Previously high numbers of applicants from the Western Balkans strongly decreased in 2016.
A total of 696 000 asylum applications were processed. This constitutes an increase of more than 146% compared to 2015 (283 000 applications). Around 37% received refugee status, while another 22% of applicants were granted subsidiary protection. In 2015, 49% of applicants received refugee status, whereas only 0.6% received subsidiary protection. Since March 2016, family reunification of migrants with subsidiary protection status is only possible after two years.
In August 2016, the Integration Act (Integrationsgesetz) entered into force. The Act aims to increase the availability of language courses and under certain conditions allows tolerated persons who are participating in vocational education and training to remain in the country for the duration of their training. If they find employment after their training, they receive a two-year residence permit. Otherwise, they have six months to search for a job. Furthermore, in the majority of districts parts of the labour market testing (the so-called priority check) was suspended for asylum seekers and tolerated persons. The “priority check” assesses if a German, EU citizen or third-country national with equal right to take up employment and who are registered as job-seeking could be preferably hired for the position. The Federal Employment Agency continues to check, however, whether employment conditions are not less favourable than those of comparable German workers. The suspension of the “priority check” is a temporary measure limited until 5 August 2019.
Refugees have to remain in the region (Bundesland) to which they were allocated during their asylum procedure for three years. This restriction can be lifted when refugees find employment, enter education or have close family members in another part of Germany. The Integration Act also gives regional governments the option to pass legislative decrees that further restrict free choice of residence within each individual Land. They can, for instance, request that humanitarian migrants remain in a given municipality or district. Alternatively, they may be forbidden to move to certain areas, particularly when shares of foreign-born are already high there. As of February 2017, four out of sixteen regional governments have passed such decrees that request that humanitarian migrants live in a specific municipality or district.
In addition, vocational language training will be increased with plans to provide around 175 000 placements in 2017.