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Canadians in Germany: Who are they and where do they live?

Finding poutine or Nanaimo bars in Germany is perhaps a little harder than locating an American burger joint. But with just over 18,000 Canadians living here, we can be found out - and yes aboot - nearly everywhere in Germany.

Published: 11 November 2021 16:33 CET
Updated: 4 July 2022 10:45 CEST

The Canadian flag flies in Frankfurt Oder. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Patrick Pleul

Although the accents of Germany’s approximately 13,500 Aussies or 117,000 Brits may be more easily distinguished from the nearly 120,000 Americans living here, you still stand a good chance of running into a Canadian in Germany – politely, of course.

Around 18,185 Canadians were registered as living in this country at the end of 2020. But contrary to what you may have been told, we don’t all sew a maple leaf to our backpacks. So, who are Germany’s Canadians and where can you find them?

For starters, according to official numbers, we’re a pretty gender-balanced bunch, with slightly more women (9,270) than men (8,915) in our ranks.

Relative to population, you’re statistically most likely to spot one of us in Berlin (3,405). Bavaria slightly beats out us Hauptstadt Canucks in absolute numbers though – with 3,420 somehow seemingly preferring a winter that reminds them more of home.

A decade in Berlin has made me up the Canadiana a bit—especially for #CanadasDragRace viewings at my place 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/kTXELx2vHf

— Aaron Gasch Burnett (@AaronGBurnett) October 23, 2021

Rounding out the top five, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg come in at just under 3,000 each, with just over 1,600 Canadians living in Hessen. At the lower end, just 75 Canadians were registered in Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania at the end of last year.

What brings Canadians to Germany?

One study from 2009 estimated that most of the nearly 2.8 million Canadians living abroad resided in just four places – the US, UK, Australia, and Hong Kong. In roughly that same time period though, the number of Canadians living in Germany has gone up around 40 percent. Even Canada Goose has made its way here, having opened locations in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich all in the last year.

So what brings our contingent of Canadians to Germany? Love is an oft-cited reason.

“We met in Scotland when we were both living there,” says Bronwyn Farr, originally from Victoria and now living in Bremen with her German partner, close to his family. “Following some work changes in Aberdeen we decided to move to either Canada or Germany. It was all about where I could get a job first. And I got a job here!”

Toronto’s Abraham Grigaitis was all set to move to London for a new job in tech. But plans changed after he met the man who is now his husband during a weekend trip to Berlin.

“It was mostly about my relationship and I’m very happy living in Berlin now. But it wasn’t the easiest move. Learning the language while trying to advocate for yourself at the Bürgeramt is hard, and there’s a lot of cultural differences. Dealing with rather straightforward Germans when you’re used to being polite sometimes feels like a splash of cold water to the face – but now my family in Canada says I’m a little too German that way sometimes,” he says laughing.

Toronto's Abraham Grigaitis (left) met his German husband during a holiday in Berlin. — *Toronto’s Abraham Grigaitis (left) met his German husband during a holiday in Berlin. Photo courtesy of Abraham Grigaitis.*

“We were flatmates in Beijing,” says Kari Churches, originally from Victoria, of meeting her German husband. They now have two boys, aged three and five, and live in a small Bavaria town with Bamberg, Erlangen, and Nuremberg all close by.

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Work opportunities are another big reason Canadians we spoke with either came to or remain in Germany. Holding jobs ranging from IT consultant to a professional show jumping rider, many also cite a better work-life balance in Germany and the chance to travel more easily, due to more vacation days, better transport services, and shorter distances from place to place.

“I love, love, love the infrastructure,” says Kelly Dawn Fischer, originally from Calgary and now living in a small town in Schleswig-Holstein. “The transit system and bike infrastructure are accessible and user-friendly, even in the countryside.”

*Kelly Dawn Fischer, originally from Calgary, visits Lübeck Gate Haus. Photo courtesy of Kelly Dawn Fischer.*

Fellow Calgarian Indrani Kar works in Bavaria as an environmental licencing planner but lives with her husband in Leipzig. She is also an admin for a “Canadians in Germany” Facebook group with over 2,000 members. “I can make good money here doing something ethical that I love. There’s no way I could do what I’m doing back home, and definitely not for what I currently earn. There’s no [extreme] winter here, so the outdoor lifestyle is great.”

Kar’s remark about winter might seem strange to some Germans, but as a fellow Calgarian, I have to point out that a Canadian prairie winter – with regular temperatures of -30C – is simply in a bonechilling league of its own. By contrast, German “winter” looks appealing.

“Love the milder winters and especially being so close to travel to literally anywhere in Europe at the drop of a hat!” says Marc Andrew Jannard, a Montrealer who now lives in Süsel, just outside of Lübeck.

From easier travel to better work-life balance, Germany has plenty going for it. But there’s always a few things you miss. True to my western Canadian roots, I myself order an Alberta steak with a glass of red from Okanagan wine country whenever I go home—things that are next to impossible to find here.

So what do our Canadians miss about Canada? For starters, it is a longer journey home than for Europeans, so family tops the list for many people, alongside naturally beautiful Canadian landscapes like the Pacific Ocean or Rocky Mountains.

“I miss how uncrowded those places are,” says Farr.

*Bronwyn Farr, originally from Victoria, now lives in Bremen with her partner. Photo courtesy of Bronwyn Farr.*

“I really only miss my family in Canada and I guess the familiarity of understanding and knowing what’s going on around me,” says Tammy Kovacs, who is from southern Ontario and now lives in Würzburg with her husband and youngest son. “But it has been getting better.”

“I miss how friendly people are at home in general,” says Grigaitis. “But also dill pickles.”

“I love the festive culture and family life here in Germany,” says Carolynn Jaworska, who lives in Mainz with her husband. “But when I’m home, I definitely enjoy a couple of caesars [a cocktail with Caesar mix, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and vodka], an Alberta steak, and a Nanaimo bar – or two!”

Are you a Canadian in Germany? Tell us what you miss about your home country, and if you have any tips for Canadian home comforts by emailing us: news@thelocal.de or leaving a comment.

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With the German far right coming out on top in two state elections earlier this month, the socialist-led national Berlin government has reimposed border controls on Western frontiers that are supposed to see freedom of movement in the European Union’s Schengen zone.

The Netherlands government, which includes the party of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, announced on Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from EU rules on asylum, with Prime Minister Dick Schoof declaring that there was an asylum “crisis”.

Meanwhile, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-wing Labour Party paid a visit to Rome for talks with Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, to discuss the strategies used by Italy in seeking to reduce migration.

Far-right parties performed strongly in June European elections, coming out on top in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections which resulted in right-winger Michel Barnier, who has previously called for a moratorium on migration, being named prime minister.

We are witnessing the “continuation of a rightward shift in migration policies in the European Union,” said Jerome Vignon, migration advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute think-tank.

It reflected the rise of far-right parties in the European elections in June, and more recently in the two regional elections in Germany, he said, referring to a “quite clearly protectionist and conservative trend”.

Strong message

“Anti-immigration positions that were previously the preserve of the extreme right are now contaminating centre-right parties, even centre-left parties like the Social Democrats” in Germany, added Florian Trauner, a migration specialist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking university in Brussels.

While the Labour government in London has ditched its right-wing Conservative predecessor administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, there is clearly interest in a deal Italy has struck with Albania to detain and process migrants there.

Within the European Union, Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian applicants, while laws have appeared authorising pushbacks at the border in Finland and Lithuania.

Under the pretext of dealing with “emergency” or “crisis” situations, the list of exemptions and deviations from the common rules defined by the European Union continues to grow.

All this flies in the face of the new EU migration pact, agreed only in May and coming into force in 2026.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Mannheim and most recently Solingen blamed on radical Islamists, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also expelled 28 Afghans back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Such gestures from Germany are all the more symbolic given how the country since World War II has tried to turn itself into a model of integration, taking in a million refugees, mainly Syrians in 2015-2016 and then more than a million Ukrainian exiles since the Russian invasion.

Germany is sending a “strong message” to its own public as well as to its European partners, said Trauner.

The migratory pressure “remains significant” with more than 500,000 asylum applications registered in the European Union for the first six months of the year, he said.

‘Climate on impunity’

Germany, which received about a quarter of them alone, criticises the countries of southern Europe for allowing migrants to circulate without processing their asylum applications, but southern states denounce a lack of solidarity of the rest of Europe.

The moves by Germany were condemned by EU allies including Greece and Poland, but Scholz received the perhaps unwelcome accolade of praise from Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Moscow’s closest friend in the European Union, when he declared “welcome to the club”.

The EU Commission’s failure to hold countries to account “only fosters a climate of impunity where unilateral migration policies and practices can proliferate,” said Adriana Tidona, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher.

But behind the rhetoric, all European states are also aware of the crucial role played by migrants in keeping sectors going including transport and healthcare, as well as the importance of attracting skilled labour.

“Behind the symbolic speeches, European leaders, particularly German ones, remain pragmatic: border controls are targeted,” said Sophie Meiners, a migration researcher with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Even Meloni’s government has allowed the entry into Italy of 452,000 foreign workers for the period 2023-2025.

“In parallel to this kind of new restrictive measures, they know they need to address skilled labour needs,” she said.