In many municipalities, the trend has intensified social problems and placed a growing burden on community service systems.
Areas like schooling, housing, sheltering the homeless and healthcare are particularly affected.
Information from the German Federal Statistical Office shows that most immigrants come from Poland. Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria follow by a significant margin in second, in third and fourth place respectively. Immigration from Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal has also increased.
Nevertheless, immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania have been the subject of public debate, ever since the EU extended freedom of labour movement to these two member states.
"From a national perspective, the number of immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania is reasonable and manageable, but regionally it is alarming," the internal affairs minister said, adding: "It is right for us to confront this now, so the Federal Republic does not sustain significant damage."
The committee also proposed providing communities with €200 million in financial assistance over four years to help them deal with migration. The committee dealt primarily with the situation in municipalities hosting a disproportionately high number of immigrants from EU countries. Such municipalities lack apartments and sufficient housing facilities for the homeless.
But shortages in education for immigrants are also a significant problem. In this case, it is difficult to integrate them through training programmes and employment. Children do not attend school because they lack sufficient German language skills. Many immigrants do not have health insurance, but require urgent medical care.
The state secretarial committee proposed various measures to tackle the misuse of free movement rights. Re-entry restrictions are planned."
