Ukraine war
“Historical mass exodus”: OECD expects more than two million people in Germany this year
Four of what is expected to be more than two million: The Ukrainian teacher Iryna Mikulska accompanies the art lessons of a class with pupils who have fled the Ukraine at the Harksheide community school (Schleswig-Holstein).
© Marcus Brandt / DPA
One day before the “refugee summit” of the federal and state governments, the OECD made a forecast: According to this, more people will come to Germany this year than in 2015.
In Germany, the Ukraine war is expected to result in the year with the highest number of immigrants since reunification. As the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) announced on Monday, the number of people moving to Germany by the end of the year is expected to be higher than in 2015. At that time, more than 2.1 million people came to Germany within a year, mainly as a result of the civil war in Syria. In the current year registered the Federal Statistical Office From February to August alone, more than 1.8 million people immigrated to Germany, including around 952,000 Ukrainians who had fled the Russian war of aggression.
OECD: Ukraine war causes “historic mass exodus”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to meet with representatives of municipal umbrella organizations on Tuesday to talk about better distribution of refugees in Germany.
The most recent migration report by the OECD speaks of a historic mass exodus as a result of the Russian attack. According to this, around five million people fled from Ukraine to the OECD countries by mid-September alone. With almost one million refugees, Germany is the most important receiving country in the OECD after Poland.
The organization, headquartered in Paris, is an association of 38 industrial nations. It regularly researches immigration into its member countries; in addition to the EU countries, these include the USA, Canada and Japan.
It’s doing better than 2015
According to the researchers, the admission and integration of Ukrainians in Germany worked much better than during the refugee crisis of 2015. “We’ve already learned a lot,” said Thomas Liebig, head of the OECD’s Department for International Migration. He referred to integration courses and the reception infrastructure. However, access to the labor market is relatively modest at 10 to 15 percent in most OECD countries.
According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, most immigrants from Ukraine were counted in March (431,000) and April (198,000) – i.e. in the first two months after the Russian attack. The number then fell again, but was still well above the previous year’s level. 65 percent of the Ukraine refugees were women and girls. 37 percent of the immigrants were minors.