The German government anticipates a drop in asylum applications in 2018, even including the thousands of babies born to recent migrants.
The Bild newspaper reported Sunday on a preliminary report it obtained showing about 166,000 asylum applications will have been filed by year's end, including 30,000 babies born to migrants in Germany.
That's down from 198,317 in 2017 and well below the government's target of a yearly maximum of no more than 180,000 to 220,000.
More than 1 million asylum-seekers entered Germany in 2015-16, most seeking refuge from violence in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Since then the flow of migrants has slowed significantly.
The head of Germany's employers group says the integration of migrants into Germany's workforce is going faster than expected, with 400,000 already in jobs or training.
