Russians in Germany
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
3,500,000 (estimate, 2013) Ethnic background: - ethnic Russians: 1,213,000 - German Russians: 1,500,000-2,000,000 - Russian Jews: 118,000-225,000 - Tatars and Bashkirs: 200,000 230,994 (Russian citizens 2015) |
|
| Languages | |
| Russian language, German language | |
| Religion | |
| Russian Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic, Protestantism, Irreligion non-religious, Judaism, Islam |
3,500,000 (estimate, 2013)
Ethnic background:
- ethnic Russians: 1,213,000
- German Russians: 1,500,000-2,000,000
- Russian Jews: 118,000-225,000
- Tatars and Bashkirs: 200,000
230,994 (Russian citizens 2015)
There is a significant Russian population in Germany (German: Deutsch-Russen or Russischsprachige in Deutschland). The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered mass immigration to the West, with Germany being the top destination, mostly for economic and ethnic reasons. Russians are the 9th largest migrant group in Germany.
German population data from 2012[update] records 1,213,000 Russian migrants residing in Germany—this includes current and former citizens of the Russian Federation as well as former citizens of the Soviet Union. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that about 3,500,000 speakers of Russian live in Germany, split largely into three ethnic groups:
Immigration to Germany surged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to Global Commission on International Migration research, "In the 1990s ethnic Germans and Jews comprised the largest components of emigration, and the most attractive destinations were Germany, Israel and the United States." Between 1992 and 2000 Germany purportedly received 550,000 emigrants from Russia, 60% of the total amount emigrating to the three main destinations.
Earlier in history, particularly during the 17th century, a number of Germans migrated to Russia. Article 116 of Germany's Basic Law, approved in 1949, provides individuals of German heritage with the right of return to Germany and the means to acquire German citizenship if they suffered persecution after the Second World War as a result of their German heritage. As a result, roughly 3.6 million ethnic Germans moved to West Germany between 1950 and 1996. These German descendents increasingly petitioned to return to Germany under First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. According to historian John Glad, by 1957 the petitioners, commonly known as "Aussiedlers" or transferred settlers, filed over 100,000 applications a year to migrate to West Germany; several thousand returned in the 1970s. The flow of Aussiedlers increased with the breakup of the Soviet Union. For instance, between 1992 and 2007, a total of 1,797,084 ethnic Germans from the former USSR emigrated to Germany. Of this total number 923,902 were from Kazakhstan, 693,348 were from Russia, 73,460 were from Kyrgyzstan, 40,560 from Ukraine, 27,035 from Uzbekistan, and 14,578 from Tajikistan. Numbers peaked in 1994–213,214 Aussiedlers—and then gradually began to decline. The number of non-German relatives who emigrated along with them is not known, but many if not most are presumably members of Germany's ethnic Russian community (see below). The number of emigrated Aussiedlers fluctuates as many retained housing in the Former Soviet Union—some are presumed to have returned to their residences in Former Soviet Republics.
...
Wikipedia