Well, Mutti is gone, but Welcoming Culture is alive and well in Germany. Those who have lived in the country for a longer time are still being overrun by the “New Germans”.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the German-language service of Epoch Times:

More asylum applications than there have been since 2017

There are various reasons why more asylum seekers came to Germany again in 2021. There is no comparison with 2020 — during the first year of the pandemic, many borders were fairly tight. In Germany the number of asylum applications that were made last year was the greatest since 2017. As can be seen from figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf), the authority received around 190,800 asylum applications. The figures are available from the German Press Agency.

Around 148,000 of the applications concerned foreigners who applied for asylum for the first time in Germany — this is the highest level of initial applications since 2018. Around 17.5 percent of the initial applications were submitted for children under one year of age who were born in Germany.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior pointed out that a comparison with the asylum figures for 2020 was not very meaningful due to global travel restrictions. In 2020, around 122,000 asylum applications were made in Germany. In 2017, over 222,600 people applied for asylum.

70,000 asylum seekers from Syria

The list of the main countries of origin for asylum seekers was again headed by Syria last year. According to Bamf statistics, more than 70,000 applications concerned people from that Arab country. According to the information, the number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan, which is once again ruled by the militant Islamist Taliban, has increased. More than 31,000 Afghans applied for asylum last year.

The former local [Afghan] staff of the Bundeswehr and other German institutions received an acceptance letter in advance and therefore do not have to apply for asylum. This also applies to their family members as well as to human rights activists and other people from Afghanistan, for whom the Federal Government has assured admission due to their activities.

According to statistics, the number of people from North Macedonia who present to the Bamf has increased significantly. Last year the Federal Office registered more than 4,500 asylum applications from people from the Western Balkans. Overall, the authority recorded a high proportion of follow-up applications from people from the Western Balkans who had previously left the country. However, the Bamf registered a decline in applicants from Kosovo.

Applications that have not yet been decided

The number of applications that have not yet been decided by the Federal Office was around 108,000 at the end of 2021, around twice as high as at the end of the previous year. According to the Ministry of the Interior, this is primarily due to “the ongoing secondary migration within the EU” and the fact that decisions on Afghanistan were temporarily postponed in late summer and autumn due to the changed situation in the country of origin.

Last year, 21.4 percent of all asylum applications were rejected. 36.7 percent of the applications were otherwise dealt with: for example through an assignment to another EU country according to the so-called Dublin procedure or because the application was withdrawn.