PERCEPTIONS Country Report – Germany

The federal authorities for migration governance in Germany are the Refugees (BAMF) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). Germany has received comparatively positive ratings from migration governance monitoring programmes, with The Migrant Integration Policy Index 2015 rates German policy as favourable or slightly favourable on the dimensions of labour market mobility, access to nationality and permanent residence, and political participation. On the other hand, dimensions found lacking are antidiscrimination, family reunion, education, and health.

In 2019, every fourth person in Germany is of immigrant background (BAMF 2019), meaning that for 25,5% of the population, they or one of their parents were not born a German citizen. Public attitudes toward migration have fluctuated over the years: while the 2015- 2016 spike in humanitarian immigration did pose a real challenge to Germany’s migration infrastructure, its most profound effects were political and cultural. Initial responses were largely welcoming. However, increased inflows from Muslim-majority regions coincided with high-visibility security incidents across Europe, aggravating longstanding anti-Islamic and racist sentiment within the right-wing, while lack of control over European migration policy aggravated Euroscepticism.