According to a report released by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) this morning, July 14,2016 the number of people that immigrated to Germany in 2015 is the highest ever recorded, as the illustration below shows.

In 2015, immigration to Germany was higher than ever before; this is reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on the basis of provisional results. In the reference year, a total 2,137,000 people immigrated to Germany. This was an increase of 672,000 arrivals, or +46%, on 2014. In 2015, a total of 998,000 people departed from Germany, 83,000 (+9%) more than in the previous year. The resulting net immigration of 1,139,000 people, the balance of arrivals and departures across Germany's borders, is the highest in the history of the Federal Republic. The numbers are so high because of last year’s refugee crisis peak.

The numbers of asylum seekers and people immigrating to Germany is so far decreasing significantly compared to last year, when over 1 million came into the country. By the end of June 2016, there have been a total of 222,264 newly registered asylum-seekers. Germany’s Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizere sees the main reason for the development in the closing of the so-called Balkan Route and the agreement on refugees reached between the EU and Turkey. De Maizere did not want to comment on possible future developments of the refugee situation and described the current state as “labile”.

The numbers of new refugees have been decreasing monthly, in January there were 91,000 and in June “only” 16,000. The majority of the refugees still coming to Germany are from Syria (75,000), Afghanistan (38,000), Iran (9,200) and Russia (5,300).