Europe without borders – Germany is losing out on immigration from neighbouring countries
Freedom of movement within Europe is one of the greatest achievements of the European Union. It opens up opportunities for professional careers, facilitates economic exchange and strengthens cross-border networking. Germany in particular, which urgently needs immigration in view of demographic developments, is ideally placed to benefit from this mobility thanks to its central location in Europe with nine direct neighbours. However, Germany is in direct competition with Austria and the EFTA country Switzerland for the immigration of skilled labour and young talent within Europe due to the common language area. The Berlin School of Business and Innovation (BSBI) has analysed how Germany performs in terms of internal migration within the DACH region and compared the development from 2014 to 2023.
Strong Connections from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Austria
Austria’s largest group of immigrants from a neighbouring country are Germans with 225,012 people. This is followed by Hungary (99,679) and Slovakia (48,477) – two countries that have had close historical ties with Austria since the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The strongest increase in the period under review was among immigrants from Hungary: the number of Hungarians in Austria has risen by 115 per cent since 2014. The number of Slovenians (+109 per cent to 23,585) and Italians (+87 per cent to 37,718) in Austria has also risen significantly.
Germany – Many Neighbors in the Heart of Europe
With 784,224 immigrants, Poland was the most important country of origin for internal migration to Germany in 2023. This figure corresponds to an increase of 35 per cent since 2014. The largest percentage increase was in immigration from Luxembourg: 22,986 Luxembourgers lived in Germany in 2023, which is 8,536 (+59 per cent) more than in 2014. Other important countries of origin for internal migration to Germany are the Netherlands (132,032) and France (118,766). However, the figures mentioned for France (+7,111, +6 per cent) and the Netherlands (+562, +0.5 per cent) have barely increased since 2014. The number of Austrians in Germany has even decreased slightly in the period under review (-1,091, -1 per cent), as has the number of Danes (-1,429, -7 per cent).
Strong Ties from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Austria
For Austria, Germans represent the largest neighboring nationality, with 225,012 residents. Following them are Hungary (99,679) and Slovakia (48,477), countries that have historically maintained close ties with Austria since the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hungarians also constitute the ethnic group with the highest migration increase (+115 percent since 2014), closely followed by Slovenians (+109 percent to 23,585) and Italians (+87 percent to 37,718).
Switzerland is the Most Popular Among Italians
In Switzerland, Italians are the largest group from neighbouring countries with 332,700 people, closely followed by Germans (315,963). There were 157,031 people from France and 45,961 from Austria. The increase in immigration to Switzerland in the period under review was only 15 per cent, which is significantly lower than the development in Germany (+21 per cent) and Austria (+58 per cent). However, the proportion of immigrants from neighbouring countries in the total population in Switzerland is the highest in the DACH region at just under ten percent – in Germany, immigrants from neighbouring countries make up just under two percent of the total population, in Austria it is five percent.
Prof. Dr. Kyriakos Kouveliotis, Provost & Chief Academic Officer of BSBI, comments: “As an international business school, we see internal migration in Europe as a great benefit – both for the people and for the countries that know how to profit from this mobility. However, in the competition for skilled workers and talent, Germany performs poorly compared to its neighbours in the DACH region. Over the past ten years, Austria has had three times as many immigrants from neighbouring countries as Germany – and in some countries, even more people migrate from Germany than to it. We urgently need an honest culture of welcome, less bureaucracy, and long-term prospects for people who choose to build their lives in Germany. Only in this way can we become a future homeland for our neighbors in Europe as well.”
*Since 2019, there have been no updated Eurostat figures on Swiss citizens in France. According to data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the number of Swiss citizens in France has been, on average, more than ten percent higher than in Germany in recent years.
About the Study
The study was based on population statistics from Eurostat. Data for Switzerland for the years 2022 and 2023 were sourced from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. The most recent available data for Denmark dates back to 2022. Data on Germans in the Czech Republic from 2018 onward was supplemented by figures from the Czech Ministry of the Interior.