Over One in Five German Residents Come from a Foreign Background

A newly released report has shown the true extent of the impact of mass migration on Germany as 18.6 million residents, over one-in-five of the total population, now come from foreign backgrounds.

The statistics come from the German Federal Statistical Office’s new yearbook for 2017 which finally shows the extent of demographic change that many Germans have assumed for years. The figures also show a huge divergence between the west of the country and the east with some areas in the west having up to 30 per cent foreign background residents, Die Welt reports.

The region with the most foreign background residents is Bremen with 30.5 per cent of the population coming from a non-German background. The regions in the east are diametrically different, averaging only 6.4 per cent with Thuringia the lowest at just six per cent.

An estimated 4.3 million non-German residents come from European Union countries and live and work under the open borders Schengen agreement. Poles are the largest single EU citizen group with a total of 783,000 Polish citizens living in the country.

The single largest nationality among the 18.6 million foreign residents are those of a Turkish background at 15 per cent of the total.

Turks in Germany have made their presence known in large numbers over the past year with tens of thousands demonstrating to support Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following the failed coup last year and the presidential referendum earlier this year.

In 2015, the migrant crisis led to an explosion of population growth for Germany as the statistics show that Syrians became the largest group of migrants at 326,379 followed by Romanians at 212,182.

The change has also been much tougher on the German economy as statistics show that most EU citizens move to the country for work while the unemployment rate for asylum seekers and other migrants who came during the migrant crisis has been gigantic.

The issue has led some economists to warn that over the long term, mass migration will be harmful to the growth of the German economy.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com