Over 433 thousand Kosovars live in Germany

More than 2.6 million out of 19.3 million people in Germany with immigrant descent come from Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo, the latest data from the German Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, show.

The report, published on August 1, says that in 2017 a total of more than 19.3 million Germans had immigrant backgrounds .4 percent compared with last year.

The results are based on a microcensus conducted late last year. The report stipulates an immigrant background “if they or at least one of their parents was not born with German citizenship”.

Out of 2.6 million people from Balkan backgrounds, 8592,000 have roots in Romania, 398,000 in Croatia and 273,000 in Bulgaria, reaching 1.5 million immigrants from the three newest EU member states.

Romanians have become the fifth largest minority in Germany, behind Turks, Poles, Russians, and Kazakhs, and account for 4 percent of the total number of people of foreign background.

In addition, the data included 373,000 Bosniaks, 433,000 Kosovars and 34,000 Serbs in Germany, who make up over 1.1 million people from the three former Yugoslav states.

The statistics office has no record of newcomers from any other Balkan state outside the EU, except for Turks, who number 2,777,000 people.

By 2017 about 51 percent of the population of immigrant descent had gained German citizenship, and about 49 percent were foreigners, statistics show.

In 2011 the percentage of foreigners in the immigrant population was 42 percent.

Of the 19.3 million people in Germany of immigrant descent, some 13.2 million were immigrants themselves, notes the report.

“Since 2017, microcensus has asked these people for the main reason for immigration. The most important motive was family reasons,” says the report.

Most of the people who have been displaced from the Balkans are younger than the average, statistics show. The average age of people from these countries is between 28.4 years of age for Kosovars up to 39.5 years old for Croats.

Bulgarians are the second by age 30.2, while Serbs, Bosniaks and Romanians are an average of 38. By comparison, the average age in Germany in 2015 was 44 years and three months.

More than 1.8 million out of 2.6 million immigrants are working age (15-64), with half a million people under 15. Less than 300,000 are over 65 years old. (reporter. Al)