The Direct Impact of Migration on Europe’s Population, Integration and Society

As is well known, while natural population growth (the difference between births and deaths) is falling in many European countries, population growth is largely driven by migration. Alarm bells have already started ringing, especially for countries such as Germany. Although Germany reached a record population of 84.7 million in 2023 with an increase of around 300,000, this increase came from immigration. The picture became even clearer in the following years: net migration fell to 430,000 in 2024 and to 235,000 in 2025, and with deaths exceeding births by 352,000, Germany’s population fell by about 110,000 in 2025 to 83.5 million (according to figures revised on the basis of the 2022 census).

According to the Federal Statistical Office, net migration to Germany in 2023 was around 663,000. In 2022, under the impact of the war in Ukraine, net migration had reached an exceptional 1.46 million. Although the pace of migration returned to normal levels in 2023, Germany recorded an estimated more than 1 million deaths and around 700,000 births that year; in other words, the population was declining naturally.

The population is also steadily ageing. Today about 31% of the population is aged 60 or over, and this share continues to rise.

For a long time, migration closed this gap and allowed the population to grow. In 2025, however, net migration was no longer enough to offset the natural loss.

This shows that in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands migrants are critical for demographic sustainability. However prominent anti-migrant populist rhetoric may become from time to time, it does not reflect reality in the long run, and these countries remain fundamentally dependent on migration.

Contrary to the populist picture currently visible in the media and public debate, the governments of these countries therefore act more realistically: on the one hand they encourage migration as a response to an ageing population and labour needs (for example by easing skilled immigration laws), and on the other they make periodic changes, sometimes easing and sometimes tightening, to citizenship and migration policy.

To speed up the integration of the foreign workforce, Germany’s reform, which entered into force in June 2024, allowed dual citizenship and reduced the residence period required for naturalisation from 8 to 5 years.

The Netherlands is experiencing a similar migration–population dynamic. The Dutch population reached 18.13 million at the end of 2025, and the source of growth in recent years has been immigration. Net migration to the Netherlands was about 137,000 in 2023, falling to 108,000 in 2024 and 95,000 in 2025. In the same period natural population growth in the Netherlands turned negative, with deaths exceeding births by about 3,000; in 2025 this gap widened to about 7,500.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has reported that the fall in the number of immigrants since 2024 has slowed population growth. One reason for this is the decline in arrivals of Ukrainian refugees after the influx of 2022. However, migrants and asylum seekers from Asian countries (particularly Syrians and Iraqis) continue to arrive in the Netherlands. To manage these migration flows, the Netherlands is reviewing its housing and infrastructure planning, while also trying to attract the workforce it needs through the highly skilled migrant scheme.

According to 2023 data, most of the highly skilled migrants who came to the Netherlands were nationals of India, Turkey, China and South Africa. Although applications under the HSM scheme fell by 20% that year compared with the previous year, Turkey was among the top four countries sending skilled migrants to the Netherlands, which tells migration advisers to trust the figures rather than populist rhetoric.

The example of ASML will also give migration advisers an idea. In this company alone there are more than 1,300 Turkish engineers and employees.

Social Impact and Public Opinion

Rising migration in European countries is diversifying the social fabric and bringing issues such as integration, multiculturalism and social cohesion onto the agenda. While migrants’ contribution to the economy and to a younger population is recognised, rapid demographic change can also trigger certain concerns.

Public opinion on migration is divided: some groups argue that migration is necessary to fill labour shortages, while some political movements call for limits on irregular migration and strict cultural integration.

In Germany, for example, migration debates throughout 2023 centred on the difficulties of providing accommodation for refugees. Reports appeared in the press that more than 329,000 first asylum applications had been lodged in Germany in 2023, in addition to arrivals from Ukraine, and that some cities were struggling to find shelter.

In the Netherlands, the humanitarian crisis at the Ter Apel refugee centre in summer 2022 (asylum seekers sleeping in the open because of overcrowding) put asylum policy at the centre of politics. In July 2023 the government fell over a dispute on family reunification rules, and in the subsequent coalition talks the tightening of migration policy became decisive. In June 2025 the next government also collapsed over asylum policy.

These examples show that migration management has dimensions not only of population and the economy but also of political stability and planning public services.

People concerned with migration should therefore turn their attention not to populist and sterile political debates but to up-to-date figures and global and regional migration phenomena.

Let us close this section by saying: “We must not let incidents overshadow the facts!”