Germany’s economic growth is also thanks to migrants from across the European Union, according to Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). On October 31, it presented a study showing that workers from other EU countries were crucial to increasing Germany’s economic output.
Specifically, between 2011 and 2016, migrants from across the EU added an average 0.2% of GDP growth annually. The study said their contribution to Germany’s overall economic output was particularly big in 2015 as a result of an above-average influx of skilled labour from the bloc.
As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, the study shows that overwhelming majority of the new arrivals was able to find employment and thus fuelled private consumption in Germany.
According to DIW researchers, a total of 5.1 million migrants from other EU nations came to Germany between 2011 and 2015, with the high number attributable to the introduction of the free movement of goods and labour for most countries in the bloc in 2011.
As of 2014, the rules have also applied to migrants from Romania, Bulgaria, and as of 2015 to Croatia.
Most of the EU migrants entering the German job market were young and highly skilled, the survey pointed out, helping Germany to cope better with the downsides of an aging population reflected also in a shortage of skilled labour.
“Germany will have to double its efforts to remain attractive for skilled labour from the EU now that the economic situation in the eurozone and the larger EU is looking up again,” said Marius Clemens, the author of the DIW study.
