| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,890,000 est. [1] [2] (2.0% of the German population) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Ruhrgebiet, Cologne, Leipzig, Dresden, Rostock, Mainz, Kaiserslautern | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Various religions Predominantly Buddhism, Irreligion and Islam but also Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism |
Asians in Germany or German Asians (German : Deutsch-Asiaten) are German citizens of full or partial Asian descent. The term Asian German is also applied to foreign residents of Asian origin living in the Federal Republic of Germany. German Asians have been present in Germany in small numbers since the 19th century and originate primarily from countries like Vietnam, China, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Japan or the Philippines. Although Germany's official census data does not collect specific data on ethnicity or race, but rather nationality, the number of people with an Asian "migrant background" is listed in statistical reports.
As of 2011, there were approximately 1,890,000 people from or descendants of peoples from Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia or South Asia living in Germany. However, these numbers do not include Western Asians such as Anatolian Turks, Kurds, Assyrians, Mizrahi Jews, Arabs or Iranians. If West Asian peoples were to be included, the numbers would be significantly higher as there are over 2.5 million German Turks alone.
In late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, there had been in parts of what is now Germany a periodical presence of nomadic tribal groups of either partial or full Central Asian/East Asian stock, like the Huns and the Avars. Besides, in the 13th century Mongol military detachments carried out plunder and scorched-earth operations in the easternmost parts of German territory. However, the first mentioned Asians in Germany proper were Chinese. In 1822 two Cantonese-speaking seafarers, Feng Yaxing and Feng Yanxue came to Berlin. [3] They were employed as stoker on steamships in Hamburg and Bremen. During the mid to late 19th and early 20th century many seamen and students resided in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli, forming a Chinatown. [4] Due to the Nazi regime, most of the Chinese population had to leave in the 1930s to escape discrimination.
In western Germany, many Vietnamese people arrived in the 1960s or 1970s as refugees from the Vietnam War. The comparatively larger Vietnamese community in eastern Germany traces its origins to assistance agreements between the GDR and the North Vietnamese government. Under these agreements, guest workers from Vietnam were brought to East Germany, where they soon made up the largest immigrant group and were provided with technical training. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, many stayed in Germany. Since the early 1990s there has been an influx of Thai people, South Koreans, Indonesians and Filipinos coming to Germany as nurses, au pairs or employees. In addition, illegal immigration from Vietnam via Eastern Europe is increasing significantly in the East German states. [5] Furthermore, there are far more Thai and Filipino women than men in Germany, while the reverse holds true for Chinese and Indians. The Vietnamese community which now forms the largest group of Asians in Germany has a more equal male-female ratio.
According to the German "Mikrozensus 2011" there were about 1.8 million people with an Asian migrant background living in Germany. Of those about 600,000 were of Southeast Asian descent (primarily from Vietnam or Thailand). [6]
The distribution of German Asians by federal state is as follows:
| State | Number of Asians | % of State population |
|---|---|---|
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 457,000 | 2.5 |
| Baden-Württemberg | 273,000 | 2.5 |
| Bavaria | 253,000 | 2.0 |
| Hesse | 200,000 | 3.2 |
| Berlin | 150,000 | 4.0 |
| Lower Saxony | 209,000 | 2.5 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 105,000 | 2.5 |
| Hamburg | 80,000 | 4.5 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 51,000 | 1.5 |
| Bremen | 20,000 | 3.0 |
| Neue Länder (former East Germany) | 117,000 | 1.0 |
| Saarland | 15,000 | 1.5 |
Chinatown is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
Overseas Chinese refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Little Saigon is a name given to ethnic enclaves of expatriate Vietnamese mainly in English-speaking countries. Alternate names include Little Vietnam and Little Hanoi, depending on the enclave's political history. To avoid political undertones due to the renaming of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City, it is occasionally called by the neutral name Vietnamtown. Saigon is the former name of the capital of the former South Vietnam, where a large number of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants emigrating to the United States originate from, whereas Hanoi is the current capital of Vietnam.
Chinatowns in Asia are widespread with large concentrations of overseas Chinese in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and ethnic Chinese whose ancestors came from southern China — particularly the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan — and settled in countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea centuries ago — starting as early as the Tang dynasty, but mostly notably in the 17th–19th centuries, and well into the 20th century. Today the Chinese diaspora in Asia is primarily concentrated in Southeast Asia; however, the legacy of the once widespread overseas Chinese communities in Asia is evident in the many Chinatowns found across East, South and Southeast Asia.
Urban Chinatowns exist in several major European cities. There is a Chinatown in London, England, as well as major Chinatowns in Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool. In Paris there are two Chinatowns: one where many Vietnamese – specifically ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam – have settled in the Quartier chinois in the 13th arrondissement of Paris which is Europe's largest Chinatown, and the other in Belleville in the northeast of Paris. Berlin, Germany has two Chinatowns, one in the East and one in the West. Antwerp, Belgium also has an upstart Chinese community.
This article discusses Chinatowns in Oceania.
In non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East.
Overseas Vietnamese refers to Vietnamese people who live outside Vietnam. There are approximately 5 million overseas Vietnamese, the largest community of whom live in the United States.
Chinatown in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, also called Adelaide Chinatown or Moonta Street Chinatown, is located on Moonta Street, within the large Adelaide Central Markets precinct between Grote and Gouger streets in the Adelaide city centre. Two large Paifang, which were erected by the city council, are guarded by the Chinese guardian lions. They mark the entrances at either end. Adelaide Chinatown consists mainly of Chinese restaurants, grocery stores and markets but also consists of many non-Chinese Asian restaurants offering cuisines of Indian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Nepali, Thai and Vietnamese origins.
Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the continent of Asia. Canadians with Asian ancestry comprise both the largest and fastest growing group in Canada, after European Canadians, forming approximately 20.2 percent of the Canadian population as of 2021. Most Asian Canadians are concentrated in the urban areas of Southern Ontario, Southwestern British Columbia, Central Alberta, and other large Canadian cities.
Chinese people in Germany form one of the smaller groups of overseas Chinese in Europe, consisting mainly of Chinese expatriates living in Germany and German citizens of Chinese descent. The German Chinese community is growing rapidly and, as of 2016, was estimated to be around 212,000 by the Federal Institute for Population Research. In comparison to that, the Taiwanese OCAC had estimated there were 110,000 people of Chinese descent living in Germany in 2008.
Vietnamese people in Germany(Vietnamese: Việt kiều Đức / Người Việt tại Đức; German: Vietnamesen in Deutschland) form one of the country's largest groups of resident foreigners from Asia. Federal Statistical Office figures show 103,260 Vietnamese nationals residing in Germany at the end of 2020, which is the fourth largest community from Asia excluding transcontinental, Caucusus and Middle Eastern states. Not included in those figures are individuals of Vietnamese origin or descent who have been naturalised as German citizens. Other data from 2020 shows 183,000 people of Vietnamese descent, of which 117,000 have a migration background.
The Albanians in Germany refers to the Albanian migrants in Germany and their descendants. They mostly trace their origins to Albania, Kosovo and to a lesser extent to North Macedonia and other Albanian-speaking territories in the Balkan Peninsula. Their exact number is difficult to determine as some ethnic Albanians hold German, Macedonian, Serbian or another Former Yugoslavian citizenship.
Vietnamese migrant brides in Taiwan represent marriages between Taiwanese men and Vietnamese brides who are mostly from poor, rural areas of Vietnam, such as those along the Mekong Delta. As of 2006, out of Taiwan’s immigrant population of approximately 428,240 people, 18% were females who had relocated to the country through marriage. Out of this population, about 85% originated from the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines, with the majority hailing from Vietnam. It is estimated that between the years of 1995 and 2003, the number of Vietnamese women married to Taiwanese men increased from 1,476 to more than 60,000 individuals, making the Vietnamese the largest non-Chinese immigrant group living in the island. This event has been seen locally and abroad as something that can potentially evolve into a concerning societal and humanitarian issue. This issue is not just localised in Taiwan but also in Southern China provinces as well as Hong Kong and Macau. In every case, these practices are illegal and are classified under human trafficking.
The Quartier asiatique, also called Triangle de Choisy or Petite Asie is the largest commercial and cultural center for the population of Asian origin of Paris. It is located in the southeast of the 13th arrondissement in an area that contains many high-rise apartment buildings. Despite its status as a "Chinatown", the neighborhood also contains significant Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian populations.
Asian-Americans in Maryland are residents of the state of Maryland who are of Asian ancestry. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Asian-Americans were 6.1% of the state's population. The ten largest Asian-American populations in Maryland are Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Pakistanis, Japanese, Taiwanese, Thai, and Burmese. There are smaller numbers of Bangladeshis, Nepalis, Cambodians, and Sri Lankans.
Syrians in Germany refers to Syrian immigrants in Germany, or Germans with Syrian ancestry. The number of people with an immigration background from Syria, including those with German citizenship, was estimated at around 1,225,000 in 2022. Additionally, the population with Syrian citizenship residing in Germany is 923,000 in 2022, making it the second-largest group of foreign nationals living in the country. Notably, Germany boasts by far the largest Syrian diaspora outside of the Middle East.
Anti-Vietnamese sentiment involves hostility or hatred that is directed towards Vietnamese people, or the state of Vietnam. This may be due to negative perceptions created by historical wars or xenophobic sentiments that emerged from the event of refugee Vietnamese. National or regional discrimination can also occur.
Asian immigrants to Sweden are citizens and residents of Sweden who were born in or have ancestry from nations in Asia. Due to immigration, from 2000 to 2020, Sweden's Asian-born population grew by 577,651.
The Asian diaspora is the diasporic group of people whose ancestral origins lie in Asia, but who live outside of the continent. There are several prominent groups within the Asian diaspora.
