Migration data
Since 1 January 2005, the Federal Office has been coordinating information on residence for the purposes of employment between the immigration offices, the Federal Employment Agency and the German representations abroad. Following the statutory basis for the Immigration Act, the information required for political decision-making in the area of immigration should be evaluated and prepared in the Federal Office.
Information is exchanged on a regular basis through the Federal Office’s monitoring of migration. All of this combines to provide monthly reporting on current migration developments into Germany from non-EU states. For this purpose appropriate evaluations are made from the nationwide Central Register of Foreigners (AZR), in which the residence and settlement permits granted by the local foreign affairs offices are recorded. The migration monitoring unit distinguishes between various reasons for migration, for example, migration to join family, humanitarian or economic migration. The aim is to acquire information for the purposes of monitoring immigration and advising political decision-makers in an appropriately qualified manner. At the same time, the migration monitoring data that is regularly published on the internet also supports researchers, students and journalists in their work and provides information to members of the public interested in this subject.
The Federal Office also assesses developments in relation to the movement of EU citizens from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Complete free movement of persons has been in place for these countries since 1 May 2011.
