Charts show how young Syrian community is putting down roots in Germany

Syrians are the youngest migrant group in Germany, new figures have revealed.

More than half of Germany’s 1.2 million people with Syrian roots are under 30.

Their average age of 25 brings Germany’s overall average down to 44, in a country where millions are reaching retirement age.

People from Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Lebanon are among the other youngest groups.

Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine helped to swell Germany’s migrant population to a new high in 2022.

About 28.7 per cent of Germany’s population has a migrant background, according to figures from its official statistics agency released this week.

This includes people whose parents migrated to Germany or took up German nationality.

Syrians made up one in six new arrivals in the past decade, with huge numbers reaching Germany during 2015 and 2016.

Their arrival was politically explosive — but the figures give a snapshot of a young Syrian community putting down roots in Germany.

As they start to complete what is typically an eight-year citizenship process, 15,000 Syrians became German citizens last year.

Some got there early after excelling at language and citizenship tests.

Another 181,000 Syrian-born migrants have arrived in the past five years, after the peak of the refugee wave.

Many have had children in Germany. About one in six of those with a Syrian background did not migrate themselves.

About 495,000 people of Syrian heritage are children or teenagers, and a similar number are aged between 20 and 39.

Together, the under-40s make up 80 per cent of those with Syrian roots.

Families of Syrian origin have more children than average in Germany, which has a low birth rate.

A typical household with a Syrian-born member has three people including one child. By contrast, only every third household across Germany includes a child.

Only about 27,000 people, a small fraction of the total Syrian community, are aged 60 or above.

By contrast, there are 23.8 million over-60s in Germany, more than a quarter of the population.

Among school leavers, about 269,000 people of Syrian heritage have completed Germany’s equivalent of A-Levels.

There are 66,000 who have completed a university degree, including 9,000 with a master’s degree.

In total, there are about 695,000 men and 530,000 women of Syrian background in Germany, with men considerably more likely to be part of the labour force.

A little more than half of the members of the Syrian community speak German in addition to their native language.

While the majority of them primarily speak Arabic at home, one in six mainly speaks Kurdish, according to official figures.

Young Arab men in particular have come under the microscope of right-wing politicians, who point the finger at them for committing crimes and causing disorder.

But in a country with so many retirees, some ministers are looking to loosen migration rules to plug gaps in the labour market.

While debate still rages about the decision to open Germany's doors in 2015, success stories include the election this month of Ryyan Alshebl as the first town mayor who arrived from Syria that year.

The government plans to bring in “pre-integration” courses to start teaching German to future migrants before they arrive.

Almost 60,000 people of Syrian background live in Berlin, long a hub of Middle East culture in Germany.

There are also substantial groups in the city-states of Bremen and Hamburg and in the western Ruhr area.

Among other migrant groups, the long-standing Turkish community remains the largest.

Many people moved from Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s under a “guest worker” programme in what was then West Germany.

About 2.8 million people in Germany have a Turkish background, although fewer than half as many were themselves born in Turkey.

They are older on average at 52, and have typically been in Germany for more than 30 years, compared to a typical seven-year stay for the younger Syrian community.

Those with Syrian roots are the fifth-largest migrant group after people from Poland and two former Soviet countries, Russia and Kazakhstan, many of whom were displaced by the Second World War or the Iron Curtain.

Germany is home to about 425,000 people of Afghan origin, including some who arrived after the Taliban seized control of the country in 2021.

There are also about 393,000 people with roots in Iraq, 304,000 in Iran, 257,000 in Morocco and 242,000 in other North African countries.