 Distribution of Somali citizens in Germany (2021) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 33,900[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Berlin · Kassel · Frankfurt | |
| Languages | |
| Somali,German | |
| Religion | |
| Islam |
Somalis in Germany are citizens and residents ofGermany who are ofSomali descent. According to theFederal Statistical Office of Germany, as of 2020, there are a total 47,495Somalia-born immigrants living in Germany.[1]
Between 1969 and 1991, the flow of Somali refugees to Germany was steady, but it increased quickly after 1991. Many of these later arrivals subsequently moved on to other countries, including theUnited Kingdom.[2] UNHCR data suggests that 15,000 people from Somalia claimed asylum in Germany between 1990 and 1999.[3] In March 2019, together with theInternational Organization for Migration, Germany started to run a resettlement programme for refugees in Ethiopia. A first group of 154 Somali refugees were resettled in Germany under the programme in October 2019.[4] According to German Census data,Kassel has the highest share of Somali migrant and has a Somali cultural association. Other cities likeBerlin andFrankfurt have also few numbers of Somali population.
In December 2025 a group of 143 people fromSomalia,Congo,Ethiopia andSudan was admitted into Germany after two Somali families had used lawsuits, supported byPro Asyl NGO acitivists, to force their way into the country. The Berlin-Brandenburg Regional High Court decided in October 2025 that the government had to brind the Somalis to Germany to fullfill third-country resettlement obligations, taken by the previous administration.[5]
In aBKA report on statistics from 2017, migrants to Germany from Somalia constituted 1.7% of all migrants and 2.9% of all migrant crime suspects.[6]
According to theBMFSFJ, of the 5,797 women from Somalia living in Germany in May 2016 withoutGerman citizenship, 5,681 (98%) were victims offemale genital mutilation.[7]
According to research with 20 Somali refugee women living in shared reception facilities in Germany, many travelled to the country alone, with fear of sexual violence, forced marriage, honor killings or FGM being cited as gender-specific reasons for having fled Somalia.[8]
In the 2010-2012 Somalia became one of the main jihadi destinations for German foreign terrorist fighters. A significant portion of these Somalis belonged to a group ofal-Shabaab sympathizers inBonn, along with German converts toIslam.[9] Andreas Martin Muller, who has the alias Abu Nusaybah, is alleged to be one of the gunmen who attacked a military base in Lamu county Kenya from Somalia.
