Immigration to Berlin - immigration_to_berlin.pdf
▻https://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/lb-integration-migration/fremdsprachig/immigration_to_berlin.pdf?start&ts=1433500348&file=immigration_to_berlin.pdf
Immigration to Berlin
Around one million of the 3.4 million inhabitants of Berlin have a
migration background. This is to say that either they themselves or
one of their parents were not born in Germany. This is good for
Berlin. The constant influx of active and especially mobile new
citizens and the diversity that results from this unleash the dynamism of urban societies, which are essential for social progress. Hitherto unknown qualifications, new cultural stimulus, surprising perspectives no metropolis can do without these productive forces.
Anyone who wants to understand what is so special about Berlin
should not look only at the current migration trends. These can be
summed up quickly: today foreign citizens are coming from a total of 186 states. Almost three quarters of them are Europeans. Every
eighth migrant is from an Asiatic state, only about six percent are
from America, almost four percent are from Africa and 0.5 percent of the foreigners come from Australia and Oceania. And since the
financial crisis immigration from Spain has risen too. As a result of
freedom of movement within the European Union the number of
immigrants from countries like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria is
noticeably increasing.
How deeply a city is marked by migration can be seen not only in the number of legally registered foreigners. Hundreds of thousands of people can live in an international metropolis, but they leave only marginal traces if they stay in the city for a short time – for a few months or one or two years for business or political activities.