Germany has now issued a total of 1 million family reunification visas since the 2015 migrant crisis, according to data from the Federal Foreign Office.
This year alone, around 115,000 such visas were granted, pushing the total to this milestone. The request for this data came from AfD MP Martin Hess. By November 2024, Germany had issued 114,707 national visas for family reunification. In 2023, about 130,000 visas were issued.
The top five nationalities benefiting from these visas were Syria (18,586), Turkey (13,484), India (11,534), Kosovo (7,923), and Iran (4,147). In over half of the cases, spouses were reunited with their families, while 39% of the visas were for children.
In response to the influx of migrants since 2015, the far-right AfD party is now pushing for an immediate halt to all family reunification visas. AfD’s Martin Hess has argued that family reunification should be stopped and reorganized, calling the numbers “completely unacceptable.” On Facebook, Hess further criticized the situation, saying that many of the new arrivals, particularly from Muslim-majority countries like Syria, will likely end up relying on Germany’s social systems.
Alice Weidel, the newly selected AfD candidate for chancellor, has called for a five-year immigration moratorium, demanding a complete halt to migration.
