The tens of thousands of Filipinos in Germany consist of people from various walks of life, including
migrant workers
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers ...
in the medical sector and marine-based industries, as well as a number of women married to
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
men they met through
international marriage agencies.
Migration history
The history of Filipinos in Germany goes back to the 19th century; national hero
José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a na ...
lived in Germany for some time and finished writing his famous novel ''
Noli Me Tangere
''Noli me tangere'' ('touch me not') is the Latin version of a phrase spoken, according to John 20:17, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after His resurrection. The original Koine Greek phrase is (). The biblical scene has b ...
'' while living there, and published it with the assistance of professor
Ferdinand Blumentritt; the house where Rizal lived in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
sports a commemorative plaque, and efforts are underway to purchase the building from its owner.
Mass migration from the Philippines to Germany began in the late 1960s, with large numbers of Filipina nurses taking up employment in German hospitals; however, with the onset of the
1973 oil crisis
In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Eg ...
, German recruitment of ''
gastarbeiter
; ; both singular and plural) are foreign or migrant workers, particularly those who had moved to West Germany between 1955 and 1973, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker program (). As a result, guestworkers are generally considered t ...
'' largely came to a halt. Immigration through marriage began in the 1980s, with roughly 1,000 women a year applying at the Philippine Embassy for a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage up until 1990.
Demography
Reliable estimates on the number of Filipinos in Germany are difficult to obtain. The German embassy to the Philippines estimated that 35,000 Philippine citizens worked in Germany as of 2008, and that another 30,000 had naturalised as German citizens.
Roughly 1,300 Filipinos acquire German citizenship each year.
Official figures of the
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
The Federal Statistical Office (, shortened ''Destatis'') is a federal authority of Germany. It reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Office is responsible for collecting, processing, presenting and analysing statistical informati ...
showed 23,171 Filipinos residing in the country as of 2003; that number did not include Filipinos naturalised as German citizens, nor those who
resided in the country illegally. A 2007 study by scholars of the Philippine Migration Research Network suggested that the number of illegal residents might be as high as 40,000.
However, the Philippine consulate-general claims that the number of Filipinos illegally residing in Germany is very small.
As a result of the early female-dominated migration of nurses and
international marriage agencies in West Germany, the Filipino community is heavily gender-imbalanced, with nearly 3.5 women for every man, according to the
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
The Federal Statistical Office (, shortened ''Destatis'') is a federal authority of Germany. It reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Office is responsible for collecting, processing, presenting and analysing statistical informati ...
.
Only in Hamburg is this ratio reversed.
Community
Filipinos in Germany have established more than one hundred civic organisations.
Karaoke
is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone.
Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...
contests are a particularly popular form of social gathering.
Church-based volunteer work is also widespread and has been particularly successful in encouraging social engagement by female migrants, aimed at assisting the local Filipino community as well as raising money for charity projects in the Philippines.
Filipinos are well-integrated into German society, viewed by their neighbours as hardworking, skillful and peaceful.
According to a 1997 survey by the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
'
Universiteit van Tilburg
Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Tilburg has a student population of about 19,15 ...
, 75% feel they have no problems with cultural or linguistic adjustment.
Notable people
See also
*
German settlement in the Philippines
*
Germany–Philippines relations
References
{{Immigration to Germany
Asian diaspora in Germany
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
Germany–Philippines relations