Yes, but that's the biggest EU countries and they take a lot of migrants. Wikipedia says 18% of Germany population are first-generation immigrants. In comparison, in US it's only 14%. For the whole EU the number is around 11%.
> generally Europe is very anti-immigrant.
From what I know about "how to legally immigrate to US" vs "how to legally immigrate to Europe", the latter is much easier. The public sentiment might be there, but the laws say the other way.
I don't know what your experience is, but immigrating legally to the EU is not easy unless you're from a rich country like the US.
Legally immigrating to the US (getting a residence permit) is either a matter of luck (lotteries), extraordinary skills, very long waiting lists, or a combination of these.
On the contrary, immigrating to the EU is "just" finding a job on the local market and applying for some paperwork. And the EU does not discriminate you on the basis of the country where you've been born.
Remember that EU has a free flow of work force, so I expect lots of those 18% will come from Netherlands or France.
In Sweden at least, immigration was always biggest from neighboring countries (e.g. Finland/Norway)
But if you take the broader, official definition then you get something like 30% apparently:
https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/zahlen-und-fakten/soziale-situ...
What's the point for the native citizen of Netherlands or France in moving to Germany? The quality of life and salaries are similar, but the culture context is just so different between these countries. Completely different languages, different customs, etc. The numbers surely confirm that - the France is in the bottom of the list, and Netherlands are not even included. [1]
Anyway, out of ~14 million foreigners in Germany only 5 million are from other EU states, and most of them (~3 million) are from Eastern European countries (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary).
> In Sweden at least, immigration was always biggest from neighboring countries (e.g. Finland/Norway)
There are less cultural differences between Sweden, Finland and Norway. At least they have more or less similar languages (ok, Finnish is different, but Sweden is also an official language in Finland).
1. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Popula...
Then, why is it misleading to compare Polish and Romanian immigrants to Germany with Mexican immigrants to US?
1. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Popula...
Are they counting EU citizens living in Germany?
