Germany ranks second among OECD countries in terms of permanent immigration

In 2025, Germany accepted a good six percent fewer permanent immigrants than in the previous year. While the number of international students increased by 45 percent, so-called humanitarian migration fell by 35 percent, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) International Migration Report released on Thursday.

In the OECD countries as a whole, permanent immigration fell by 1.6 percent to 6.1 million people.

In Germany, labor migration also increased by 40 percent. The OECD explains this by more flexible immigration routes for skilled workers. With a total of 538,000 immigrants, Germany was in second place after the USA with 1.23 million, followed by Spain with 460,000 immigrants. With 1.2 million Ukrainians admitted, Germany remained the most important OECD host country for people who fled the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

Overall, the number of immigrants in OECD countries fell for the second time in a row, but remained at a historically high level, still 12.5 percent above the value in 2019, before the corona pandemic.

In addition to Germany, Great Britain and the USA also recorded a decline in permanent immigration of 32 and 14 percent respectively. On the other hand, the southern European countries recorded strong growth: In Portugal, the number of immigrants rose by 139 percent, which, according to the OECD, is primarily explained by the processing of pending applications. In Italy the number rose by 46 percent, boosted by labor migration and family immigration. In Spain the increase was 25 percent, boosted by the legalization of the residence status of undocumented immigrants.

Family reunification remained the most important immigration channel in OECD countries, accounting for 45 percent of all permanent immigration. The proportion of labor migration rose to 20 percent, while humanitarian migration fell by ten percent.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) brings together 38 industrialized countries, including Germany.