Mass migration revived in times of debt crisis, recession, austerity and unemployment. From European door to European door, so to say. One million people from the European south moved to Germany in 2012, Germany’s statistics authority said on Tuesday. And majority of the new European migrants came from Spain, Greece and Portugal.
Greek state broadcaster NET TV reported that more than 34,000 Greeks moved to Germany in the last year.
In all, 1.08 million people moved to Germany last year, or 13% more than in 2011, Germany’s statistics office said Tuesday, indicating that the euro zone’s debt crisis is reshaping the fabric of European society as well as the economy. The biggest increases came from people moving from the stricken economies of Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy.
“Until recently, Germany was an emigration country, but now people are flocking to Germany in search of work, as their home countries are mired in recession,” said Wolfgang Nagl, a labor market expert at Germany’s Ifo institute.
The number of people moving to Germany from Spain jumped 45% in 2012 from a year earlier, excluding German expatriates, to 30,000. About 42,000 people moved to Germany from Italy, marking an increase of 40%, while the number of immigrants to Germany from Greece and Portugal rose 43% for each country in 2012, highlighting an acceleration of a trend that began in 2010 after the Greek crisis erupted.
Germans argue that the influx of foreign workers will help alleviate shortages of skilled labor in some sectors of the economy—such as engineering, information technology and health care—as unemployment in Germany remains near its lowest level since reunification in 1990.
“Germany certainly benefits from the recent rise in immigration,” Mr. Nagl said. “The Greeks, Spaniards and other people moving to Germany contribute to economic activity—they rent out flats, they go to the shops to purchase food and other things, they pay taxes and generally contribute to the social security system.” (full story WSJ)
Ask not what Germany can do for you, but what you can do for Germany. Probably working towards a second Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) 🙂
PS so glad we can boost the German economic activity. Phew!
All for the greater glory of the German economy of course. Pitty it took the complete destruction of the Irish, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian economies to get there. How much do these immigrants actually earn, given that Germany has no minimum wage legislation? And how many of them are mini-jobbers, forced to live from hand to mouth with no prospect of improvement? Of course, all for the greater glory of the German economy…