As 'Russkaya Germaniya' notes, in absolute numbers this amounts to 17.1 million people, of whom about 5.5 million were born in Germany (as of December 31, 2015, the total population of the Federal Republic of Germany was 82,175,684). As the statisticians particularly emphasize, these and other data given below do not include the number of refugees accepted by Germany in 2015.
Among children and adolescents under the age of 18, the proportion of people with foreign roots is even higher – 30% (or one in three). Moreover, the highest proportion (36%) is in the age group under five. At the same time, in the 65+ group it is less than 10%.
The main countries of origin of people with a migration background are named by Destatis as Turkey, Poland and Russia, however, out of the total number (17.1 million people) of this group, 6.3 million have roots in countries from which the main contingent of guest workers came to post-war West Germany – primarily Turkey, Italy and Greece.
As noted at Destatis, people with a migration background are three times more likely than native Germans to have no secondary education or to have graduated from lower-secondary school (Hauptschulabschluss). The same ratio applies to vocational training. At the same time, an interesting correlation with country of origin can be observed.
For example, in the age group 25 to 35, 88% of people of Chinese origin have completed secondary education, while only 16% of their peers of Turkish origin have. A similar picture is seen on the German labor market: the average income of ethnic French is 2,622 euros per month, while that of ethnic Bulgarians is only 1,352 euros.
According to Destatis methodology, 'a person with a migration background is defined as someone who themselves or at least one of their parents is not German. This group also includes naturalized foreigners and late repatriates, as well as their descendants born in Germany.'