EU Foreign-Born Population Hits Record High, With Spain a Standout in Its Rate of Increase

For Viktor Marsai, director of the Budapest-based Migration Research Institute, the figures confirm a long-running shift in the composition of several EU societies, but he believes the real numbers run higher than the official statistics suggest. The foreign-born share, in his estimation, often stands above 20 percent in many European countries, with Germany and France approaching 26 percent or more of the population either born abroad or having two foreign-born parents.