More Croatians leave Germany than move there for first time

More Croatians leave Germany than move there for first time

ZAGREB, 1 July (Hina) – Far fewer foreigners moved to Germany in 2023 than in previous years, and for the first time, the number of Croatian citizens immigrating to Germany also decreased, the Federal Statistical Office has said.

While 2,665,772 foreigners arrived in Germany in 2022, that number dropped to 1,932,509 last year, according to the Office.

For the first time since Croatia joined the EU in mid-2013, more Croatian citizens left Germany than moved there last year. In 2022, 20,604 Croatian citizens moved to Germany, while 24,241 moved out.

At the end of last year, 434,035 Croatian citizens lived in Germany, compared to the 332,605 registered in 2016.

The number of people moving from Croatia to Germany has been declining since 2019, when 48,379 Croatians moved to Germany.

Berlin, home to a large number of Croatians

The same trend has been observed with other newer EU member states, such as Romania and Bulgaria, with the number of their migrants to Germany declining over the past five years.

At the same time, the number of immigrants from Kosovo and North Macedonia has been slightly increasing, as their citizens have been allowed to immigrate under the so-called Western Balkans workforce rule since 2016.