In 2007, 165,000 German citizens left the country, which is 6% more than in 2006. This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office. Only 14,000 of them were residents of the eastern federal states, while the majority – 151,000 – lived in the western states and Berlin.
According to Deutsche Welle, the most popular destinations among those leaving Germany are Switzerland (20,000 people), Austria (14,000), Poland and the USA (10,000 each). According to emigration expert Stefan Krönert from the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, countries like Poland attract late resettlers who lived in Germany for a certain number of years to obtain German citizenship. Now they are returning to the Eastern European countries where they were born and raised. Austria, Switzerland, and the USA are popular due to good labor market prospects and low language barriers.
At the same time, for the first time since 2001, the number of foreigners coming to Germany began to rise again. In 2007, this figure reached 572,000 people, which is 2% more than the previous year. Also, over the past year, 111,000 Germans returned to Germany, which is 8% more than in 2006. The net migration increase considering those who left Germany and those who arrived was 48,000 people, twice as many as in 2006.
In total, 683,000 people arrived in Germany last year, while 635,000 left the country.