The population of the Federal Republic grew by half a million people – mainly due to the influx of immigrants
As reported by "Russkaya Germaniya", of the total number of people who arrived in Germany in 2016, 1.719 million had foreign passports, which is 15 percent less than in 2015. At the same time, 1.084 million foreigners left Germany, which is 224 thousand more than the same indicators of the previous year.
Just over half (51 percent) of the arriving foreign citizens had passports from European Union countries, another nine percent had identity documents from other European countries. Meanwhile, 24 percent of foreigners came from Asian countries, and another five percent from Africa. According to statistics, the final figure for immigrants was 13 percent lower than in 2015 (or 272,000 people). However, the figure for emigrants from Germany increased by 37 percent compared to the previous year (by 368,000).
Based on data provided by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), about 280,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2016. Compared to 2015, these are not very high figures. At that time, at the height of the migration crisis, 890,000 refugees registered in Germany. For comparison: last year, there were 186,644 new asylum seekers in Germany.
Thus, it turns out that the overall population growth in Germany in 2016 (plus 500,000) was largely due to the influx of refugees. However, exact figures are not known here. The main problem is that experts from the Federal Statistical Office, in demographic matters, only take into account the citizenship of those arriving and leaving the country, but not the purpose of their entry or exit. Therefore, one can only roughly estimate how many refugees are "responsible" for the increase in Germany's population.
In addition, it must be considered that in 2016, 37.6 percent of all asylum applications were rejected. However, all those who receive a rejection from BAMF still have the opportunity to appeal it in court. Therefore, the statistics here are even more confusing.
For example, a few weeks ago, reports appeared in the German press that almost half (44 percent) of the lawsuits filed by "rejected applicants" are decided in their favor. However, as BAMF head Jutta Cordt notes, this is not entirely true. According to the official, not all applications from "rejected applicants" reach the stage of court proceedings. About half of all lawsuits are withdrawn from courts by the plaintiffs, as those who filed them abandon their attempts to stay in Germany.
That is why BAMF only takes into account those lawsuits for which decisions have been made in favor of the applicants, in favor of the federal office itself, as well as cases where lawsuits were closed at a preliminary stage. According to this statistics, court instances ruled in favor of "rejected applicants" in only 23 percent of cases, and in 32 percent of cases in favor of BAMF.