Large influxes of asylum seekers and other migrants to Europe from Muslim-majority countries have inevitably led to a significant rise in the number of Muslims in Germany, who in 2016 made up nearly 6 percent of Germany’s population. Even with no future net migration, Muslims will likely represent 9 percent of the country’s population by 2050, the Pew Research Center estimates. The rapid scale of arrival of nearly 1 million asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan—all Muslim-majority countries—to Germany in recent years has significantly affected the sociopolitical landscape, partly leading to a growing populist and nationalist backlash with groups advancing anti-immigration agendas. This has also reduced religious tolerance towards the growing Muslim community in Germany, particularly in eastern parts of the country where fewer Muslims live and where about 57 percent of the population perceive Islam as a threat; it also continues to have significant national implications for promoting social cohesion and integration of recently arrived refugees.

These developments come in a country that has long invested in immigrant integration programs and citizenship policies built on the premise of economic and population growth, and encouraged by public consensus surrounding declining birth and increasing death rates witnessed in Germany since the 1970s. Decades of small-scale labor migration policies have attracted millions of migrants from Turkey, Russia, Poland, and Italy to address both short- and long-term labor shortages, making Germany the second most popular destination for migrants in the world after the United States as of 2019. Promotion of a “culture of welcome” (or Willkommenskultur) undergirds efforts to attract new immigrants, as does a culture of recognition (or Anerkennungskultur) to foster inclusion. As a result, Germany has been a model country for immigration and integration practice and policy, and the government has actively played a role in the economic and social integration of asylum seekers and other migrants arriving within the past two decades.

Read the full article about Muslim immigrants in Germany by Diana Rayes at Migration Policy Institute.