As reports «Russkaya Germaniya», the ninth report of the German government «On the Situation of Foreigners in Germany» contains on 650 pages tens of thousands of figures that help summarize the government's view of the situation in which the numerous immigrants populating the country find themselves.
The government document does not confirm the apocalyptic picture presented by former Berlin finance minister and current national-conservative writer Thilo Sarrazin in his fundamental work «Germany Abolishes Itself» (Deutschland schafft sich ab). According to the conclusions, confirmed by figures, of the State Secretary for Integration of the German government, Maria Böhmer, immigrants who arrived in Germany are on the right path. But not everyone will be able to follow it to a happy end.
So, in Germany, we are gradually becoming more numerous. According to 2010 data, 15.7 million residents of Germany come from families with a migration background – 100,000 more than in 2008. In addition to the actual newcomers, statisticians include among immigrants children born in Germany, at least one of whose parents did not live in the current territory of the country before 1949 – thus, a resident of Germany with a migration background does not necessarily have to have moved to Germany themselves, and every third of those considered immigrants was born on German soil.
The majority of immigrants, as before, are Turks (statistics apparently do not count Russian Germans as immigrants). More foreigners live in Germany with German citizenship. The number of those who acquired it during the reporting period increased: in 2010, 101,570 people received a German passport compared to 94,470 in 2008. In 2011, the difference between those who arrived in the country and those who left Germany was 240,000 people – such a significant influx of immigrants was last recorded in 2001. The government cites the final liberalization of the labor market within the European Union and the financial crisis, which resulted in an influx of immigrants from Spain and Greece, as reasons for the renewed mass interest of foreigners in Germany.
On average, immigrants are significantly younger than the native population – the average age of a resident of Germany with a migration background is 35 years compared to 45.9 for the native population. More than a third of children living in Germany under the age of five have a migration background, their number is constantly growing, and a noticeable majority live in large cities.
Children of immigrants regularly attend preschool institutions (an increase over three years from 9.1% to 14%), and their school achievements are gradually approaching those of German students: the number of foreign youth who failed to complete German school decreased by 39 percent from 2004 to 2010, but the number of immigrant children without a diploma (12.8 percent) is still more than double that of their German peers. Disproportionately many foreigners (33 percent compared to 12 percent of Germans) attend schools with the lowest requirements – Hauptschule. The number of foreigners completing gymnasium increased by 36 percent from 2005 to 2010: among gymnasium students, those from Russia predominate, fewer Turks and Italians.
Young people with a migration background still find it extremely difficult to find a place for vocational training – by the end of December 2010, there were 5.1 percent of foreigners receiving vocational training, while foreign youth aged 15 to 24 make up 10.6 percent of Germany. As a result, almost a third of immigrants living in Germany aged 25 to 35 have no higher or vocational education; among those from German families, this is three times fewer.
Among immigrants, there are still significantly more unemployed than among the total population of Germany. Over five years, from 2005 to 2010, unemployment among immigrants decreased noticeably – from 18.1 percent to 11.8 (overall in Germany – from 11.3% to 7.1). Immigrants without a German passport are more often unemployed; this category also shows a slight improvement. Among foreigners living in Germany, unemployment fell from 18.2 to 16.9 percent from 2010 to 2011. Nevertheless, the government report states that immigrants reap the benefits of cyclical growth to a much lesser extent than the working native population – and the gap between the two groups is widening.
The risk of impoverishment among immigrants is three times higher compared to Germans. Foreigners are twice as likely as the native population to have difficulty making ends meet (26.2 percent of immigrants versus 11.7 percent of local Germans). In 2010, the monthly income of more than 60 percent of families with a migration background did not exceed 2600 euros; among the native population, such families accounted for 44 percent.