2015: The Year of the „Refugee Crisis“ in Germany

Looking back at the key year 2015


Asylum claims in Europe: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911

In 2015, migration became a regular item on the news agenda and became more and more the central topic of political discussion1.The number of people seeking protection in Germany and other EU countries rose rapidly, posing new challenges for the government, aid organizations and the population. A retrospective view is therefore important to understand the background and aftermath of the so-called refugee crisis. In particular, the long-term and successful integration of migrants presents Germany with a long-term task that must be tackled.

Where do the people come from and where are they going?

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees provides statistics and current figures at regular intervals – including in the year 20152. Here and in numerous other sources, more detailed information on the increase of migrants in Germany can be found.

The most important countries of origin
In 2015 Syria was by far one of the main countries of origin of migrants and refugees. Perhaps you have already observed this in the context of your voluntary commitment. In addition to Syria, there are many other countries from which large numbers of migrants have emigrated or fled. You can see the ten main countries of origin here3:


1. Syria 2. Afghanistan 3. Somalia 4. South Sudan 5. Sudan 6. Democratic Republic of Kongo 7. Central African Republic 8. Myanmar 9. Eritrea 10. Colombia

The following chart gives an overview of the migration figures from different countries and demonstrates once again how clearly Syria stands out.4:

The main receiving countries
The European counting system „EASY“, which serves the first administration of asylum seekers, registered more than one million migrants in Germany in 2015. In the same year, 476,649 asylum applications were counted. Following the extremely high immigration figures of 2015, the BAMF even recorded 745,545 initial applications in 20165.

In fact, Germany is the country with the highest number of asylum applications within the EU. In addition, the increase in the number of migrants outside the EU was also clearly noticeable. In the following you will find a list of the ten main receiving countries of refugees and, as it turns out, Germany remains one of the most frequent destination countries in a worldwide comparison 6:


1. Turkey 2. Pakistan 3. Lebanon 4. Iran 5. Ethiopia 6. Jordan 7. Kenya 8. Uganda 9. Democratic Republic of Kongo 10. Germany
Distribution among the federal states of Germany
With the help of the Easy counting and distribution system, asylum seekers were distributed to the federal states of Germany. A special distribution formula called „Königsteiner Schlüssel“7.

The Königsteiner Schlüssel comprises one third of the population and two thirds of the tax revenue of the federal states. Originally, it was used to finance scientific research institutions and dates back to the State Agreement of 1949.8.

In the following you can see which federal states were particularly affected by the influx of immigrants in 2015 and thus had to withstand major challenges.

15 % Bavaria with 67.639 initial applications
15 % North Rhine-Westphalia with 66.758 initial applications
13 % Baden-Wuerttemberg with 57.578 initial applications

Aid in the year of the refugee crisis

In 2015, when the influx of asylum seekers and refugees was particularly high, the first priority was to provide migrants with first aid. Perhaps you were already part of the „welcome society“ of the time. Around 8 million helpers and volunteers supported short or long-term municipal or church offers of help and were mainly involved in:

  • serving food
  • clothes hand-out
  • first aid
  • medical care
  • psychological support
  • distribution to emergency shelters

Footnotes

  1. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung(2015): Fluchtmigration nach Deutschland  und Europa: Einige Hintergründe, [online] http://www.bpb.de/gesellschaft/migration/kurzdossiers/217369/fluchtmigration-hintergruende [05.02.19]
  2. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (2018): Aktuelle Zahlen zu Asyl (03/2018), [online]. http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Downloads/Infothek/Statistik/Asyl/aktuelle-zahlen-zu-asyl-maerz-2018.pdf?__blob=publicationFile S. 4 [03.05.2018]
  3. Aktion Deutschland hilft (2018): Infografik: Fluchtursachen – warum fliehen Menschen [online] https://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de/de/mediathek/infografiken/infografik-fluchtursachen-warum-fliehen-menschen/ [14.12.2018]
  4. Cornelia Schu (2017): Sachverständigenrat deutscher Stiftungen für Integration und Migration: Fakten zur Einwanderung in Deutschland, p. 1 [online].https://www.svr-migration.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SVR_Fakten_zur_Einwanderung.pdf [04.05.2018]
  5. Vgl. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (2018): Aktuelle Zahlen zu Asyl (03/2018), [online]
  6. Aktion Deutschland hilft (2018): Infografik: Fluchtursachen – warum fliehen Menschen [online] https://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de/de/mediathek/infografiken/infografik-fluchtursachen-warum-fliehen-menschen/ [14.12.2018]
  7. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (2016): Bundesamt in Zahlen  (2016), [online]. http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Publikationen/Broschueren/bundesamt-in-zahlen-2015.pdf?__blob=publicationFile S. 16 [03.05.2018]
  8. Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (2016): Bundesamt in Zahlen  (2016), [online]. http://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/Publikationen/Broschueren/bundesamt-in-zahlen-2015.pdf?__blob=publicationFile S. 16 [03.05.2018]