Number of foreign nationals in Germany hits record high – statistics office

More people with foreign citizenship live in Germany than ever before, the Federal Statistics Office said on Thursday. It put the 10.6 million record figure down to an influx of people seeking asylum and migrants from other EU countries, Reuters said. Of the 82 million people living in Germany, roughly one in every eight is a foreign national, according to the office. More than 1.6 million people seeking asylum, mainly from Middle Eastern and African countries, have entered Germany since 2014. This weakened Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, who lost voters in an election last year. However, the Statistics Office said that the rise in the number of foreigners was mainly because of an influx of people from other EU states, especially from eastern members.