Migration monitor: Migration to Germany
The Federal Office’s monitoring activities with regard to migration and freedom of movement provide a monthly report on current developments regarding immigration to Germany by foreigners from non-EU states and by foreigners from the EU-8 States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary). To this end, appropriate evaluations are carried out from the national Central Register of Foreigners (AZR), which records the residence and settlement permits and EU certificates of freedom of movement issued by the local immigration authorities.
The Migration monitoring below distinguishes by purposes of migration, and so for instance by family or humanitarian immigration, or immigration for work purposes. The developments in the individual spheres of migration are systematically evaluated according to this structure. The aim is to obtain information on the purpose of migration monitoring and to provide appropriate, qualified advice to policy-makers. At the same time, the Monitoring, which is regularly published here, supports researchers, students and journalists in their work and provides information to the public.
The much higher case numbers in December 2011 as against the previous months and the same period of the previous year result from the fact that the introduction of the electronic residence title as per 1 September 2011 has led to considerable organisational changes for the application and issuing procedures in the immigration authorities which also impact storage in the Central Register of Foreigners. The comparisons provided below should be viewed in this light.
The subsequent Freedom of movement monitoring provides information on arrivals of persons who are resident in the EU-8 States to which complete freedom of movement has applied since 1 May 2011. These are not statistics on the number of titles issued but on individuals. No statements can be made here regarding participation in the labour market. 95 percent of new immigrants are however of working age, between 15 and 64.
