Within ten years, the number of workers in Germany who have immigrated from non-EU countries has tripled. At the end of last year, 295,000 people with temporary residence permits for gainful employment were recorded in the central register of foreigners, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Friday.
The largest groups come from India (33.9 percent) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (26.3 percent). Almost a quarter are academics and highly qualified specialists who have been recruited with the so-called "Blue Card" since 2012.
Ten years earlier, there were only a good 90,500 non-EU foreigners with the relevant residence permit.
Work-related immigration from the EU countries has also increased significantly. According to the results of the microcensus, around 1.65 million EU foreigners worked in Germany in 2021. That was 19 percent more than in 2017, when this data was first collected. The largest group is made up of people from Poland with 23 percent, ahead of Romania (16 percent) and Italy (13 percent).
