New figures from the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) on the occasion of Women’s Day show that almost every fourth woman in Austria already has a migration background. At the beginning of 2022, there were about 936,600 foreign-born women living in the country. That means an increase of 17 percent since 2017. Kroon.at lists the top 20 countries of origin.
More than half of foreign-born women in Austria were born in third countries, with most women coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Serbia and Syria. On the other hand, 48.9 percent of foreign-born women come from EU/EFTA countries or Great Britain. The most common countries of birth here were Germany, Romania and Hungary.
The top 20 countries of origin (as of January 1, 2022):
- Germany (131,541 – plus 4400 net immigration)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (88,057 – plus 800 net immigration)
- Turkey (75,819)
- Serbia (75,375)
- Romania (71,566 – plus 2000 net immigration)
- Hungary (46,377)
- Poland (39,388)
- Slovakia (28,550)
- Croatia (27,231 – plus 2,200 net immigration)
- Syrian (22,655 – over 1,800 Nettozuwanderung)
- Russia (22,245)
- Czech Republic (21,834)
- Bulgaria (17,833)
- Italy (16,528)
- Kosovo (16,077)
- Afghanistan (15,244 – plus 860 net immigration)
- North Macedonia (14,100)
- Slovenia (13,303)
- Iran (11,399)
- Ukraine (11,261)
The ÖIF considers all women whose parents were born abroad as women with a migration background, regardless of their nationality.
Comparison over 5 years: largest increases from Syria
Net immigration to Austria was +22,000 in 2021, slightly higher than in the previous year (+19,000). That means: last year 22,000 more women came to Austria than left Austria. In a 5-year comparison (2017-2022), the largest increases were among women born in Syria (+46.2 percent) or Ukraine (+30.1 percent). But Romania (+26.6 percent), Bulgaria (+26.1 percent) and Iran (+21.9 percent) also had an above average number of women than five years ago.
Asylum applications: the share of women decreased significantly
The share of women in asylum applications fell sharply: just under nine percent of the asylum applications (9,739) in 2022 were submitted by women. In 2021 it was 14.6 percent, in 2018 it was 39.6 percent. In 2022, women accounted for about a third of asylum grants.
While the employment rate of women without a migrant background exceeded 70 percent in 2021, it was only 60 percent for women with a migrant background, according to the ÖIF brochure, which refers to data from Statistics Austria. It was highest among women from EU or EFTA countries (70.9 percent), lowest among women from Syria/Afghanistan/Iraq (12.6 percent).
level of education rises
The ÖIF also collected figures on education: according to this, more than a quarter (27.4 percent) of schoolgirls had a non-German colloquial language in the 2020/21 school year. An increase in the level of education was observed for both Austrian women and women of foreign nationality: the share of women with a university degree rose from 1.3 percent (1971) to 21.6 percent (2021) among Austrian women. Among foreign women, the share of university degrees rose significantly more: from 3.4 percent (1971) to 28.8 percent (2021). The level of education also increased when looking at the migration background.
Source: Krone
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