BERLIN (Reuters) - German net migration rose to a 20-year high in 2013, fuelled largely by immigrants from euro zone debt-crisis states Italy and Spain as well as a continued influx of Poles, data from the Statistics Office showed on Thursday.
With its population shrinking and ageing, German industry has actively called for immigration to help fill the gaps. But abuse of its welfare system has also been a hot topic before European Parliament elections this week.
Net migration - the balance between overall immigration and emigration - rose to 437,000 people, the highest level in 20 years.
Net migration from Italy rose by some 52 percent to 32,000 on the year. A net 22,000 people moved to Europe's largest economy from Spain, up 19 percent. But net migration from Greece, where the euro zone debt crisis started, fell by 9 percent.
Most immigrants in 2013 came from Poland, with net migration of 72,000 people.
Germany mostly benefits from migration. By 2050, a third of Germany's population will be above the age of 65, according to government data, and the population is expected to shrink by a quarter. But abuse has been an issue. "The EU is not a welfare union," Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying on Thursday, just as the European Parliament elections started in the Netherlands and Britain.
Germans go to the polls on Sunday following a campaign in which "welfare tourism" has been a topic.
"(Germany wants) not to pay (unemployment benefits) for EU citizens who are in Germany just to seek work," Spiegel Online quoted Merkel as saying.
A German draft law seen by Reuters this week also envisages blocking EU citizens from returning to Germany for some time if they have abused welfare benefits before.
On Tuesday, a legal adviser to the European Court of Justice said Germany could refuse to pay some social benefits to citizens of another EU country if they only came to Germany to receive benefits.
The legal opinion is not binding, but the ECJ often follows the general prosecutor's views.
In the year before Bulgarians and Romanians got full access to the European job market, migration from those two countries showed differing trends. Immigration from the former fell by 13 percent but was up 10 percent from the latter.
(This story was corrected to make clear that totals quoted for overall migration and for Italy, Spain and Greece in paragraphs three and four are absolute net migration, not net change. The error was first made in the original story issued at 0712 GMT)
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Larry King and Kevin Liffey)
