According to the the Federal Statistics Office, 798,000 people immigrated to Germany in 2010, 77,000 more than in the previous year (+11 percent). Meanwhile, 671,000 left the country, 63,000 fewer than in 2009 (-9 percent).
The rise in population reverses a two-year period when more people left the country than arrived. However, immigration in 2010 still did not match the heights seen during the post-reunification 1990s, when typically saw 800,000 people entered Germany each year.
In 2010, 684,000 immigrants of the total were foreigners, while about 115,000 were expatriate German nationals returning home.
The most immigrants came from Poland (126,000), Romania (75,000) and Bulgaria (39,000), while Hungary, Turkey and the United States were represented with 30,000 each.
Emigration from Germany fell about 10 percent for both foreign nationals (530,000) and Germans (141,000).
Switzerland (22,000) was the most popular landing spot for German emigrants, followed by the United States (13,000) and Austria (nearly 11,000), but emigration numbers for all three countries fell compared to 2009.
DPA/The Local/adn
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