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We have already said in a previous video that we have been surprised in this eastern part of Germany by the very low proportion of immigrants that we see on its streets. With Dace we agree that this happens mostly in what was the former German Democratic Republic, with the exception of Berlin.
But let's see what the figures confirm, which goes beyond a simple immigration issue. Since reunification, about 3,700,000 Germans have left the East, some in order to reunite with their families.
But the majority looking for the professional, economic and social opportunities offered by the large metropolises located in the former West Germany. This figure represents almost a quarter of the population of the former GDR.
And it is that the economy is behind this. According to the ranking of the world's largest publicly traded companies, published by Forbes magazine this year, 47 of the 50 largest German companies are headquartered in West Germany. Only three of them are in the East, but in Berlin. This is one of the reasons why the population of eastern Germany seems to be in free fall.
According to figures from the Munich Institute for Economic Research, about 13.6 million people currently live in the former territory of the German Democratic Republic, the same number of inhabitants as in 1908, 114 years ago.
Back then, West Germany had 32.6 million people, but since then its population has more than doubled and is estimated to hit 68.3 million by the end of this year. This growth has an important migratory base that has not happened on this side of the map simply because the opportunities are on the other side.
Immigration in Germany is very varied and is dominated by those from culturally diverse areas, the majority coming from Eastern Europe and the Middle East with 36%, followed by those from East Asia with 34% and from North Africa with 14%.
At a great distance are foreigners from Community Europe with 4.40%, Sub-Saharan Africa with 4.12%. For some reasons, including the language barrier and the climate, those from Latin America make up only 2.7% of immigrants.
But the vast majority of them are in the old West Germany. And if there is something that makes it seem at first glance that immigrants in the old GDR are even fewer than they really are, it is that Russians, Ukrainians and Poles predominate in this region, more assimilated and with less distinguishable features than those of other provenances.
While in many areas of Bremen, Hamburg or Cologne and even in Berlin itself the Germans have decidedly begun to see themselves in a minority, in Leipzig, Dresden and other nearby cities this is not the case. They are particularities that we are discovering on this side of the map.
In a future video we are going to walk the streets of a small German town that preserves its idiosyncrasy and physiognomy practically intact to verify that there are still places where customs persist.
🌎 Subtitles in Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Russian and English.
🔎 I am Gustavo Llusá, Argentine, after traveling for several years in more than 60 countries, I settled in Latvia where I got married and learned to know another way of life, on the other side of the map.
#FromOtherSideOfTheMap
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