The number of Croatian citizens living in Germany keeps growing.
At the end of 2015, 17.1 million of citizens of foreign origin were living in Germany, which is one fifth of the entire population, announced the Federal Office of Statistics in Wiesbaden. At the same time, 297,875 Croatian nationals were living in Germany, reports Jutarnji List on September 17, 2016.
“The proportion of residents of foreign origin reached 21 percent at the end of 2015, which is an increase of 4.4 percent compared to 2014”, according to a statement by the Office. Persons of foreign origin include all citizens, regardless of whether they have German citizenship or not, whose at least one parent was born abroad. The number of foreign nationals increased by 5.5 percent and reached 11.5 million. The first place belonged to people from Turkey, followed by Russia, Poland, Italy and Greece.
As for Croatian citizens, at the end of 2015, 297,875 Croatian nationals were living in Germany, which is a significant increase compared to 2008 when there were 223,056 citizens of Croatia living in Germany. According to the latest statistics, the number of Croatian citizens who have acquired German citizenship rose sharply after the entry of Croatia into the European Union, since now such people can retain their Croatian passports as well.
Until 2013, prior to Croatia’s entry into the EU, there were on average between 500 and 700 Croatian citizens per year who took German citizenship. Since 2014, the number has grown rapidly. In 2014, 3,889 nationals of Croatia received German passports, while in 2015 the number declined slightly to 3,327. One of the conditions for acquiring German citizenship is to have legal residence in Germany for a period of at least eight years.
Some of the Croatian nationals living in Germany are actually Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina who have Croatian passports and are therefore counted as Croatian citizens.
Statistics on citizens of foreign origin show differences in social, financial and educational status when compared to citizens of German origin. Citizens of foreign origin have less education and are more likely to drop out of school than citizens of German origin. Foreigners are also more often unemployed.
