OECD ranks Germany number two in migrant destination list

According to a recent survey of the year 2012, Germany is now the world’s second-most popular permanent migrant destination, overtaking Canada and the UK after jumping from 12th place in 2009.

Although the USA still heads the list, it’s believed that Germany’s sudden rise is due to the arrival of a large number of migrants from southern EU states still mired in the effects of the sovereign debt crisis. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development’s report revealed a jump of 38 per cent in the number of economic migrants entering the country.

During 2012, 400,000 EU citizens exercised their right to move across the region and set up in Germany. According to Thomas Leibig, one of the study’s authors, the increase is one of the the highest ever noted involving a major country.

It’s not exaggerating, he said, to call it a boom, adding that the country has one of the lowest birthrates in the EU and is short of highly-skilled workers. Since the turn of the millenium, Germany’s immigration policies have favoured the highly skilled, with one in every three European migrants deciding on Germany as the best place to search for work.

The country’s GDP is recovering faster than its EU neighbours’, with the economies in Italy, the Netherlands and France falling back at present and Spain in a severe decline. As a result, it seems that the upward trend in permanent migrants to Germany may well continue for several years yet.