Where Data Tells the Story
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This puts Germany in second place worldwide in absolute terms, just behind the USA. The largest group by country of origin is from Poland, with 1.9 million, followed by Turkey (1.5 million), Ukraine (1.4 million) and Russia (1.1 million). Behind these figures lie very different migration histories: from the 1961 Turkish labour recruitment agreement, through EU labour migration from Poland and Romania, to more recent refugee movements from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan. The reverse flow is significantly smaller. Around 4.3 million people born in Germany live permanently abroad, of whom 1.1 million are in the USA, followed by Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Austria.