Migration from Eastern Europe Has Led to a Great Increase of the Population of Germany

Every day on average 74 Bulgarians, 79 Croats and 180 Romanians emigrated to Germany last year. These are some of the factors that contributed the population of Germany to exceed 83 million last year, according to data from the country's statistical office quoted by DPA and Reuters. The net migration was 400,000 in 2018, slightly below last year's (416,000).

Most of them come from the European Union - 202,000. According to the information from Romania they are approximately 68,000, from Croatia (29,000), Bulgaria (27,000) and Poland (20,000). The total number of Bulgarians has increased by almost 8.7% compared to 2017 when they were 310 thousand.

However, in the last few years, the Croatian problem is most visible: the country with a population of about 4.1 million seeks to emerge from the mass emigration of working-age inhabitants, dissatisfied with the slow progress since joining the European Union.

Employment and declining unemployment have led to hunger for the labor market of the largest European economy. More than a million jobs must be filled according to employers in order to eliminate the obstacles to economic growth. Aging and low birth rates also suggest that Germany's labor force shrinks over the next few decades. Companies need migrants, but this also applies to the state that wants their insurance to help fund the pension system. Further liberalization of the labor market for third countries is expected next year.

However, refugees from conflict-prone countries have diminished - for example, net migration from Syria has fallen by nearly half, from 60,000 in 2017 to 334,000 last year. There is also a drop in Africa from 35 to 34 thousand. There are 1.58 million people living in the country, compared to 1.18 million people...