The German migration office estimates that 4.6 million resettlers (designated Aussiedler until 1992 and Spätaussiedler from 1993 onward) and members of their families came to Germany.
Resettlers are a group of people who arrived in Germany claiming German roots. As recently as the late 1980s, the majority came to Germany from Poland. In the early 1990s, citizens of Romania and the successor states of the former Soviet Union — mainly from Kazakhstan and Russia — joined this group.
Because they claimed German ancestry, resettlers were entitled to fast-track German citizenship, unlike asylum seekers and other migrants.
Compared with other groups, resettlers fared remarkably well in integrating into German society. The average age of these emigrants at the time of their arrival was 40.
The overwhelming majority found adequate employment. The employment rate of the German population aged 15 to 65 was 77.2 percent in 2023 (2022: 76.8 percent). By comparison, the employment rate among resettlers aged 15 to under 65 was 83.5 percent in 2023 (2022: 82.1 percent), as the federal government further explains.
Resettlers, upon arriving in Germany, were relatively young but mature, settled, and well-educated. Most of them, however, lacked language skills. Despite this, they learned fluent German and relatively quickly became functional in their new society. Currently, a high proportion of those who arrived in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s are retired. In connection with an inquiry from the populist AfD party, which asked the government about this group's financial situation, the government responded that in the 2023 national census, only 154,000 resettlers stated that their livelihood came from social benefits and welfare. When compared with all immigrants in Germany, these results indicate that resettlers live on social benefits in Germany significantly less frequently than other migrant groups. In total, 1.944 million foreign nationals in Germany live on social benefits and welfare.
The integration success achieved by the resettler group in Germany certainly has many different causes. Cultural proximity was and remains an advantage in the integration process. However, other factors that allowed resettlers to stabilize their lives in a new country at a rapid pace should also be noted. Resettlers benefited from special language courses and programs supporting professional integration. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that German and Eastern European educational systems are similar to one another, which meant that education levels and competency profiles were comparable. Interesting in the integration context are also the contributions of international agreements — for instance, between the Polish People's Republic and West Germany — which to this day regulate pension matters and have an impact on the financial standing of resettlers from Poland in Germany. Specifically, this refers to the Polish-German social security agreement of October 9, 1975. Under this treaty, the Foreign Pension Act of the German pension insurance system recognizes and credits child-rearing periods and years worked in Poland before arrival in Germany. Equal treatment in pension calculations contributes significantly to the stabilization of life for retired resettlers in Germany who arrived as ethnic German immigrants.
[Aleksandra Fedorska is a journalist for Polish and German media outlets]
