According to data from the State Statistical Office, more than 40% of people in Hamburg have a background linked to migration, which amounts to nearly 800,000 people. Among them, 20.7% are foreigners who don’t have German citizenship. Some areas of the city are affected more than others, with the Billbrook district noting a percentage of foreigners hitting a remarkable 80.5% and 88.1% of people there having a migration background. This means that very few ethnic Germans can be found there these days.
The statistics for young people are even more dramatic, with 98.2% of those under 18 in Billbrook having a migrant background; the figure for all of Hamburg is a concerning 57%. Meanwhile, half of the student population in Hamburg schools is composed of foreigners, with cultural and language differences leading to major problems and creating potentially dangerous environments, not to mention affecting students’ academic performances.
According to the Alternative for Germany party’s group leader in Hamburg Parliament, Dirk Nockerman, a huge influx of immigrants into the city has caused serious problems, including “exploding social spending and increasing violent crime.”
“The numbers don’t lie: Germans are becoming a minority in their own country, and in some parts the Germans are the new minority. This is not a wild conspiracy theory, but pure statistics,” he warned.
When it comes to the rest of Germany, 26% of citizens had a migration background last year, while non-German foreigners make up 15.2% of citizens.
Higher crime rates linked to foreigners in Germany
Unfortunately, data shows that there are considerably higher crime rates linked to these foreigners.
For example, crime statistics released earlier this year by the German Interior Ministry showed that the number of foreign suspects hit 923,000 last year in an 18% increase over the year before. Data showed that 41% of all crime suspects were foreigners despite them representing just 15% of the population at the time.
The rise in violent crime was particularly worrying, with half of all violent crimes in Germany being perpetrated by foreigners. 2023 saw a rise in violent crime of 8.6%, with record numbers of cases involving grievous bodily harm. In terms of specific crimes, robberies rose by 17%, pickpocketing climbed by 11%, shoplifting increased by 23.6%, car thefts rose 17%, and residential burglary climbed by nearly 19%.
Despite this, German authorities implemented a new law this year that makes it easier for people coming from other countries to acquire German citizenship. After the law went into effect in late June, Germany saw nearly 6,000 new naturalization applications, which is twice the number submitted during the same time frame last year. Most of the applicants come from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
To put these numbers in perspective, Hamburg saw 6,268 applications registered in all of 2020; there were 13,658 applications by mid-September of this year. The Office of Migration has deployed extra staff to keep up with the influx of applicants.
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