I guess I'm not so special after all. Germany has the third-largest number of immigrants in the world. Considering that the number in Russia has more to do with the redefinition of borders than with the actual movement of people, Germany is a very popular place to move to.

Countries hosting the largest number of international migrants in 2005*
Country	International Migrations (millions)
United States	38.4
Russian Federation	12.1
Germany	10.1

Among the immigrants, however, Americans are rather special after all. Only about 1% of the immigrants in Germany came from the U.S.A. in 2007, (http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/countrydata/data.cfm) which is about the same number as for the U.K. Most immigrants come from Turkey (17%) and Italy (5%).

One reason for the large number of immigrants is that Germany is one of the "World's friendliest countries for expats" Canada was number one for American expats, Germany was number two, and Australia was number three, based on the ability to befriend locals, number that joined a community group, number that learned the language and percentage that bought property.

There might be more of us Americans living in Germany in the future. According to Neil Payne, who works for Kwintessential, a translation services company in the U.K., "Germany is also considered middle-of-the-road culturally. Anyone you stop on the street can talk to you in English," he says. What's more, "working conditions are also very well respected and there is a nice delineation for work life and social life, which we don't have in England."