Germans with immigrant background have higher qualification: agency

People with an immigrant background in Germany had on average a higher education qualification than their fellow citizens with German roots in 2014, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday.

As reported by the Destatis, 30 percent of the migrant population had a higher education entrance qualification or an advanced technical college certificate in 2014.

It refers to all people whose families have immigrated into Germany since 1949.

The proportion of citizens with no immigrant background, who have completed a high school diploma or an advanced technical college certificate, was however only 28.5 percent.

The educational differences between indigenous Germans and the newcomers from neighboring European countries are particularly evident, said the Destatis.

Because 62.4 percent of people originally from France had a high school diploma or an advanced technical college certificate, followed by people from Britain with 53.9 percent and Ukraine with 50.5 percent.

In 2014, 10.9 million immigrants were living in Germany, 10.6 percent more than in 2011, and the highest since 2005 when the data was first collected. Immigrants were an important supply of population in the aging German society. Enditem