Recruitment agreement at 65: 2.6 million people in Germany have a history of immigration from Turkey

On 30 October 1961 West Germany and Turkey agreed that Germany could recruit Turkish workers. Sixty-five years on, about 2.6 million people in Germany have a history of immigration from Turkey, or 3.2% of the population. That is according to first results of the 2025 microcensus, which the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published on 29 October 2026 to mark the anniversary. About 1.5 million of them moved to Germany themselves, and about 1.2 million were born in Germany. They are the largest group by origin among all people with a history of immigration.

Under the Destatis definition, a person has a history of immigration if they have moved to Germany themselves since 1950, or if both their parents have. Among those who moved themselves are about 125,000 former guest workers who arrived between 1961 and the end of recruitment in 1973. Their average age in 2025 was 78.

Family the most common reason

Immigrants born in Turkey have lived in Germany for 32.4 years on average. 15%, or 216,000 of them, arrived while the agreement was in force from 1961 to 1973, including the workers’ families as well as the workers themselves. A third, 484,000 people, arrived between 1974 and 1989, when family reunification grew and, from the 1980s, more people also sought protection for political reasons. 21%, or 307,000, have come only since 2014. On arrival, people with a history of immigration from Turkey were 19.6 years old on average.

Work: lower employment, concentrated in some jobs

Although most came mainly for family reasons, 61% of immigrants from Turkey aged 15 to 64 were in work in 2025. Across the whole population of that age the employment rate was 77%. People with a history of immigration from Turkey make up 3.5% of all workers aged 15 to 64, about 1.4 million people. They are over-represented in cleaning jobs at 9.8%, textile and leather jobs at 6.7%, and metal production, metalworking and metal construction at 6.6%. In law and administration, in advertising and marketing, and among teachers and trainers, their share is 1.8% in each case.

Almost half are German citizens

48%, or 1.28 million people with a history of immigration from Turkey, hold German citizenship, either alone or alongside another. The share is 28% among those who moved to Germany themselves and 74% among their descendants born in Germany. The remaining 52% hold a foreign citizenship, mostly Turkish.

Naturalisations have risen sharply. According to the final results, 34,185 Turkish nationals became German citizens in 2025, 52% more than in 2024 (22,525); only Syrian nationals were naturalised more often. On average they had lived in Germany for 24.1 years by the time they were naturalised. Destatis sees a likely link with the modernised citizenship law in force since the end of June 2024, under which people who naturalise may generally keep their previous citizenship. Before that, the principle was to avoid multiple citizenship. In 2025, 53,772 Turkish nationals also applied for naturalisation.

Where people live

73% of people with a history of immigration from Turkey live in four states: North Rhine-Westphalia (32%), Baden-Württemberg (18%), Bavaria (12%) and Hesse (10%). Measured against the population, their share is highest in Bremen at 6.6%, ahead of Berlin at 5.0% and North Rhine-Westphalia at 4.8%.

The agreement with Turkey was not the first: West Germany had already signed recruitment agreements with Italy in 1955 and with Spain and Greece in 1960. West Germany halted recruitment on 23 November 1973, with the oil price crisis as the backdrop. From 1963 East Germany concluded its own contract-worker agreements, first with Poland and later with countries such as Vietnam in 1980. In 2025 about 455,000 former labour migrants from West Germany’s recruitment countries and East Germany’s contract-worker countries were still living in Germany.