The number migrants or people with at least one foreign parent has hit an all-time high in Germany, now representing over a quarter of the population, according to statistics released on Tuesday.

A report released by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office showed that 21.2 million residents in Germany have a ‘migrant background’, per census data collected in 2019.

The migrant background population rose by 2.1 per cent over 2018 to 26 per cent.

People of Turkish descent or who originally came from Turkey were the largest non-German group, making up 13 per cent of the migrant population, with Poles and Russians making up the next largest populations.

The report found that almost two thirds (65 per cent) of people with a migration background are from other European countries, while those from Asia or are of Asian descent from places such as Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq comprised 22 per cent of the foreign population.

The classification of ‘migrant background’ in Germany refers to people who are from another country or have at least one parent who was not born in the country.

Just over half of the migrant background population (11.1 million people) was born in Germany, with the remaining 48 per cent (10.1 million people) having been born in a foreign country.

In 2019, the Federal Statistical Office said that the main reason for migration to Germany was for family reunification, also referred to as chain migration, which made up 48 per cent of all migration cases.

In November of last year, Herbert Brücker, the head of migrant research at the Federal Institute for Employment Research (IAB), said that he expects the migrant background population to rise to at least 35 per cent within the next two decades.

“Currently, about a quarter of the people in Germany have a migrant background. In 20 years, it will be at least 35 per cent, but could also be more than 40 per cent,” Brücker said.

The migration expert went on to forecast that the foreign population boom will likely be much higher in urban centres, saying: “What we see in the big cities today will be normal for the country as a whole in the future.”

“In a city like Frankfurt, we’ll have between 65 per cent to 70 per cent,” he added.

In 2017, Frankfurt became the first city in which native Germans were the minority compared to the migrant background population.

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