NewsRescue
According to Destatis, the federal statistics department, Germany’s population will grow by a stunning 1,122,000 people in 2022, or a 1.3% yearly increase. The surge was primarily attributable to the significant number of Ukrainian refugees.
According to the announcement issued on Tuesday, Destatis grew by 0.1% the previous year. Last year, 1,455,000 people immigrated to Germany, compared to 329,000 in 2021. The overall population of the country is expected to reach 84.4 million by the end of 2022.
According to Destatis, Ukrainians have become the EU nation’s second-largest non-citizen minority. The Turkish diaspora accounts for 1.34 million of the 12.3 million foreigners living in Germany. By the end of last year, there were 1.05 million Ukrainian residents, representing a sixfold yearly increase. With 883,000 persons, Syrians are the third-largest category of foreign nationals.
According to the report, immigration has altered the age structure of German society, with the proportion of persons under the age of 20 growing by 2.8%. Over the same time period, the number of German citizens of the same age group decreased by 0.3%.
As observed by national media outlets, the influx of Ukrainians has created tensions, with some questioning the low rate of employment among Ukrainian refugees in Germany compared to other EU countries.
According to a study published last week in the tabloid Welt am Sonntag, one of the motivations is the generous unemployment benefits they can ask for while working ‘under the table’ or not at all. There is also the government strategy of teaching migrants German before encouraging them to enter the labour field, as well as Ukrainians’ expectations of better work than what they are offered.
“Ukrainians are not the same as your Arab refugees.” Ukrainians had regular jobs back home, and they don’t want to sweep floors for twelve euros an hour,” explained one of the female migrants interviewed by the publication.
