The very first step to proceeding further in this research was to make an estimation of the demographic characteristics of the Pakistani immigrants in Germany (as per the broad German definition of the immigrants). This information was also needed to design research methodology including the sampling details. According to the Ministry of the Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MOPHRD, online data), there were 78,000 estimated overseas Pakistanis living, working or studying in Germany as of December 31 in 2010, which means 1.2 % of the total Pakistani migrant stock worldwide i.e. 6.3 million (ibid.) and 0.5 % of the total international migrant stock in Germany in 2010. This figure included overseas Pakistanis holding either Pakistani passport or Pakistani origin card (POC), both. The latter category of overseas Pakistanis in Germany represents those without Pakistani citizenship, but of Pakistani descent or origin. In the language of the Destatis, the former category represents foreigners while the latter category is natives with migration background. However, Destatis provides details of the number and sex of Pakistani immigrants in the narrow sense of foreigners only, which is based on its own estimations and on the central register of foreigners (AZR). In a broad sense, explicit details about Pakistani immigrants in Germany are not publicly accessible rather informed by the statistics for a larger set of migrants grouped under the category of South/Southeast Asia. This is because of the reason that Pakistani immigrants constitute a minority group (0.5 %) among the whole migrant population in Germany.
In 2011, the Destatis micro-census estimated 25,637 Pakistani citizens in Germany while the AZR information detailed that Pakistani citizens numbered 28,038 (Destatis, 2014).
As per the sex split, the ratio of females to males was 1:1.4 respectively according to the both sources. As the study period of this scientific investigation is from 2008 to 2012, the year 2008 was taken as the base year for estimating the demographic details of the individuals having Pakistani migration background in 2008. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Germany (hereafter referred to as BAMF, 2009: 71) conducted a study on
‘Muslim life in Germany’ (hereafter referred to as MLG, 2009)1 and reported the number of Pakistani citizens in Germany (foreigners) as 28,634 and Germans with Pakistani migration background (other than Pakistani citizens) as 47,539 as of 30.06.2008, which means a total of 76,173 persons having Pakistani migration background in 2008. This figure of 76,173 persons was taken as the base population for designing the methodology for this study.
Further information provided by the same source showed that the Destatis broad group of South/Southeast Asia is dominantly comprised of migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia/Malaysia and Pakistan. Pakistani immigrants in Germany made 21.2 % of the migrants from these countries of South/Southeast Asia (Table 5.1).
Further, BAMF provided the details about the number of Muslims among the various migrant groups in Germany as their specific publication dealt with the socio-demographic, religious and migration characteristics of the Muslim migrants in Germany. The Muslim migrants in Germany having Afghanistan as the country of origin made the largest group among the South/Southeast Asian Muslim migrants in Germany while Muslims in Germany having Pakistani migration background constituted the second largest group (36.5 %) of the Muslims from the same region. By county of origin, Muslims with Pakistani migration
1 The MLG study (BAMF, 2009) included 173 Muslim interviewees who had a Pakistani migration background out of total 5,268 Muslim interviewees having a migration background
52
53 background made the largest
share (89.3 %) among the total migrants having Pakistani migr-ation background in Germany (Table 5.2). This was also in line with the general demographic structure with respect to the religious orientation of the overall population in Pakistan, where around 97 % of the total population of Pakistan is Mus-lim (Datamonitor, 2007: 4). Be-cause of the large share of the Muslims having Pakistani migra-
tion background (36.5 %) among the Muslims having South/Southeast Asian origin and dominantly high share of them (89.3 %) out of all individuals in Germany having Pakistani migration background, I assume that the socio-demographic and migration data presented by BAMF (2009) for South/Southeast Asian Muslims in Germany is valid and relevant to the whole group of Pakistani immigrants in Germany. Though the data presented in the following sections was primarily for the Muslims in Germany having South/Southeast Asian migration background, however, I used the key demographic figures due to the above mentioned reasons for designing methodology part of this study. Also, these figures have been used for triangulating the profiling results of the Pakistani immigrants later in order to check the reliability and validity of the collected data.
Table 5.2: Share of Pakistani Muslim migrants in S/SEA Muslim migrants Country Foreign Muslim
Source: BAMF, 2009: 76 and own calculations
5.1 Demographic, migration and socioeconomic characteristics Gender split
According to the BAMF estimates (2009: 95), the female representation individuals in Germany with the origin of South/Southeast Asian countries comprised 43.5 %. However Destatis (2014) while referring to the AZR, also provided gender split data precisely for the individuals having Pakistani citizenship (foreigners) in 2011 of which females had 41.5 % share among the total population of Pakistani immigrants in Germany. As the figure provided by Destatis is more specific to the Pakistani citizens in Germany, which made 37.6
Table 5.1: Share of Pakistani migrants in South/Southeast Asian (S/SEA) migrants in Germany
Country Foreign
Afghanistan 49,081 77,253 126,334 35.1 Bangladesh 4,458 14,574 19,032 5.3 Source: BAMF, 2009: 71 and own calculations
Chapter 5 Pakistani Immigrants in Germany
54
% of all the individuals in Germany with Pakistani migration background, this figure has been opted for further analysis.
Age structure
The average age of the Muslims in Germany having South/Southeast Asian origin was reported as 28.1 years by BAMF (2009: 97). Further, age structure shows that 49.9 % of the group was comprised of Muslims between the ages of 25 and 64 years old (ibid.: 100) (Table 5.3).
Distribution across the German states The majority of the Muslim immigrants from South/Southeast Asia were living in the states of Hessen and North Rhine-Westphalia in 2008. Both of these states are situated in the western part of the Germany. Their distribution in terms of percentage across all the federal states is presented in Table 5.4.
Household size and composition BAMF (2009: 126) further reported a household size of 4.1, explicitly for the Muslim interviewees (aged 16 and above) of South/Southeast Asian origin who took part in their study. The BAMF further reported a household size of 3.1 for the non-
Muslims from the same origin. As 89.3 % immigrants from Pakistan in Germany were Muslims, so I calculated a weighted mean of 3.9 for the household size of the immigrants having Pakistani migration background. Also, the number of children per household for the same set of interviewees was reported by BAMF as 1.0 (ibid.: 127).
Migration history
Among the interviewed Muslim immigrants from South/Southeast Asia, 79.2 % of them were born abroad. This means they were the first generation immigrants (ibid.: 112). The average duration of stay in Germany for the same group of interviewees was 18.3 years while the average age at the time of migration was 18.5 years (ibid.: 114 & 115). Moreover, interviewees, including both Muslims and non-Muslims were able to mention several reasons for migration of which the status refugee/asylum was the most common (more
Table 5.3: Age structure of the Muslim immigrants in Germany
Table 5.4: Distribution of S/SEA immigrants across the German states
Federal State Distribution (%)
Baden-Württemberg 9.4
Bavaria 9.4
Berlin (City State) 5.0
Brandenburg 0.3
Bremen (City State) 1.8
Hamburg (City State) 13.1
Hessen 27.2
Lower Saxony 6.3
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) 18.3
Rhineland-Palatinate 3.7
55 than 50 %) (ibid.: 118 & 299). This might primarily be due to the wars in Afghanistan and the persecution of Ahmadi sect in Pakistan. The other dominant reasons mentioned were accompanying family, joining family and studying (ibid.). Comparatively, fewer interviewees mentioned the reasons of work and self-employment as the motive behind migration (ibid.).
Highest school-leaving qualification The results of the MLG survey, 2008 conducted by BAMF revealed that the majority of the interviewed (aged 16 and above) Muslim immigrants of South/Southeast Asia origin had a high school-leaving qualification in 2008 (ibid.: 206). The split among school leaving qualification is given in
Table 5.5. The data presented in the table imply that the majority of the Muslim migrants of this group had tertiary education qualification.
Employment status
According to the employment related results of the MLG study by BAMF (2009: 215), the majority of the interviewed Muslim immigrants from South/Southeast Asia was gainfully employed in 2008, while only 7 % of this interviewed group was reported as unemployed or job seekers (Table 5.6). With respect to gender dimension, the employment rate for the males of the same group as gainfully employed was 57.7 % (ibid.: 217)
while the same indicator was 20.5 % for the females of this group (ibid.: 218).
Occupation
In 2008, the majority (44.9 %) of the interviewed South/Southeast Asian Muslim immigrants in Germany was engaged in white collar or office jobs while none of the interviewees of this group was found in the civil service of the Germany (ibid.: 223). The other noted occupations for the group were blue-collar or manual working jobs (28.6 %) and self-employment (26.5 %) (ibid.).
5.2 Remittance outflows to Pakistan
According to the World Bank estimates (online data), Pakistani immigrants from Germany remitted 113 million USD to Pakistan in 2010 which was 1.2 % of the total remittances received in Pakistan from the whole world in 2010. This percentage matches the percentage of Pakistani immigrants in Germany among the whole Pakistani immigrants worldwide in 2010. If we assume the same population of Pakistani immigrants of 2008 for 2010, i.e.
Table 5.5: Highest school leaving qualification of the interviewed Muslim immigrants
School-leaving qualification % of total No school-leaving qualification 12.4 Low school- leaving qualification 13.4 Intermediate school- leaving qualification 20.6 High school- leaving qualification 53.6 Source: BAMF, 2009: 206
Table 5.6: Employment status of the interviewed Muslim immigrants
Employment status % of total
Gainfully employed 43.9
Trainees/apprentices 33.3 Unemployed/job-seekers 7.0 Work in the home/family 15.8 (Early) retiree
Parental leave/ Other Source: BAMF, 2009: 215
Chapter 5 Pakistani Immigrants in Germany
56 76,173, it implies that every Pakistani immigrant in Germany, on average, remitted 1,483.47 USD to Pakistan in 2010. So, according to the World Bank estimates, a Pakistani immigrant from Germany remitted 6.7 % less than a Pakistani immigrant worldwide remitted to Pakistan in 2010. The World Bank estimated 25.7 % and 14.1 % annual increase in remittance inflows to Pakistan from Germany for the next two years, i.e. 2011 and 2012 respectively. On the other hand, the SBP (online date) reported significantly lower and conflicting figures of remittance inflows to Pakistan from Germany for these years.
According to the SBP (online data) reported figures of remittance inflows to Pakistan from Germany in 2010, a Pakistani immigrant in Germany, on average remitted 1,124.15 USD to Pakistan in 2010.
Further, while the World Bank reported an increase of 14.1 % of remittance outflow in 2012 from the previous year, the SBP (online data) reported a decrease of 9.7 % of the remittance inflow from the previous year.
In the peak economic crisis year of 2009, the annual average change in the remittance inflows to Pakistan from Germany was 29.4 %, which was the highest during the time period of 2005 to 2013. Table 5.8 presents the data of remittances received in Pakistan from Germany during that period. It shows that the pre-crisis period (2005-2008) experienced the highest annual average increase in remittance inflows from
Germany, i.e. 12.9 % as compared to the crisis and the post-crisis period. During the crisis time (2008-10), the annual average increase in remittance significantly decreased to 3.9 %, while the post-crisis time (2010-13) experienced a negative annual change of 3.1 % in remittances. That negative average annual increase in the post-crisis period reported by the SBP is a stark contrast with the figures estimated by the World Bank for that period and with the worldwide trend of the remittance inflows to Pakistan.
Table 5.7: Remittance outflows to Pakistan from Germany
Year Remittance inflows
(USD million) Avg. annual increase (%)
2005 55.08 12.9
2006 70.67
2007 78.83
2008 79.33
3.9
2009 102.62
2010 85.63
-3.1
2011 99.62
2012 89.95
2013 77.97
Source: SBP (2014: Online data) and own calculations
Migrant
Destination place
Changes
Uncertainty w.r.t. execution time
Global forces
Transnational social space Translocal connection
Mobility, remittances and other flows
Origin place
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? Research inquiry/ Points of departure Multi-scaled forces triggering changes
Local forces
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?
Translocal connections