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SOCIETY
2014, 108,420 foreigners were naturalised.
bour is increasingly bringing well qualified
Late emigrants of German extraction from
migrants to Germany. The proportion of new
the successor states to the former USSR con-
immigrants with an academic background is
stitute the largest group of immigrants,
above the average proportion of academics in
numbering around 4.5 million people.
the German population.
Migrants render an important contribution
The EU Blue Card in particular is a central
to social and economic development in Ger-
residence permit facilitating access to the
many. The Federal Government wishes to en-
German labour market for skilled academics
able further immigration, also to counter
from non-EU states. Planned legislation is in-
the shortage of skilled labour resulting from
tended to link up immigration rules.
demographic change. According to a study
by the Bertelsmann Foundation the number
Integration as a key task of
of Germans of working age will sink from
migration policy
45 million to less than 29 million by 2050.
Without further immigration, the pressure
With the reform of citizenship law in 2014,
on social welfare systems will increase. The
dual citizenship was introduced and the “op-
pension system in particular is based on an
tion obligation” abolished for the children of
intergenerational contract, whereby the
foreign parents who were born and grew up
working population today finances with its
in Germany after 1990. Previously they had
contributions the pensions of the generation
to decide for one or the other citizenship at
that has reached retirement age on a pay-as-
the latest upon reaching 23 years of age.
you-go principle – with the expectation that
the coming generation will later finance t