Rising Concerns Over Terrorism and Immigration Policies in Germany
In a surprising critique of Germany’s open borders approach, Berlin’s Record newspaper highlighted that more Polish citizens have died in Islamist terrorist attacks on German soil than in Poland itself.
Recently, a tragic incident occurred at the Christopher Street Day Pride Parade in Berlin when a 65-year-old woman from Warsaw was killed after a 21-year-old named Abdul Barout drove his van into a crowd. Alongside her, 31 others were hurt, including the victim’s daughter, who was also there to participate in the annual LGBTQ celebration.
This isn’t an isolated case; Polish truck driver Łukasz Urban was among those killed during a previous vehicle attack. His death came in 2016 when Tunisian terrorist Anis Amri used a truck to ram pedestrians at a Berlin Christmas market, resulting in 12 fatalities and 56 injuries.
A report noted that this statistic highlights how more Poles have died in jihadist terrorist incidents in Germany than in Poland, attributed largely to Poland’s strict immigration policies, which contrast sharply with Germany’s more lenient stance on Muslim immigration.
Poland’s Muslim population is estimated to be between 40,000 and 76,000, which is surprisingly small relative to its total population of about 37.7 million, accounting for merely 0.1 to 0.2 percent.
On the flip side, Germany hosts around 6.6 to 7 million Muslims, representing about 8 to 8.5 percent of its 82.7 million population. Among these is the Berlin attacker, who was a 21-year-old of Lebanese descent born in Berlin.
The stark difference in migrant policies is evident, especially since Poland has imposed strict border controls in recent years, resisting the waves of mass immigration that followed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decisions in 2015.
There’s a growing sentiment among Poles suggesting that Germany is becoming unsafe. This has fueled discussions on social media, where various comments referring to recent violence often blame it on “culture intensifiers” and “technocrats.”
Interestingly, for the first time, more people are choosing to move from Germany to Poland instead of the other way around. Research indicates that around 90,807 individuals migrated from Germany to Poland in 2024, while only 82,082 went from Poland to Germany.
This shift goes against the prevailing notion that mass immigration is vital for economic growth. In fact, Poland has outperformed Germany recently, with the latter seeing a mere 0.2 percent growth compared to Poland’s 3.6 percent.
